Home From Exile, Shafiq Reconsidering Egyptian Presidential Bid

(Bloomberg) -- A presidential hopeful who returned to Egypt from exile in recent days has backed away from plans to run in next year’s election, in which incumbent Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is widely expected to seek a second term.

Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister who fled after losing the 2012 presidential runoff to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, returned from the United Arab Emirates on Saturday evening. His whereabouts remained unknown for 24 hours, however, and his daughters said they feared he had been kidnapped by the authorities.

His lawyer, Dina Adly, later said on Facebook that she had seen the former air force pilot. Soon after, he spoke by telephone to Dream Television to say he was safe and had checked into a Cairo hotel.

Asked about his presidential bid, which was announced from exile on Nov. 29, Shafiq said he remained undecided. “Now, since I am in Egypt, I’ll examine whether it’s the logical choice or not,” he said.

Shafiq served under President Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 revolt that eventually ousted him. He would have offered the most serious challenge so far to El-Sisi, a former military chief who led the removal of the Brotherhood from power following protests in mid-2013.

El-Sisi won a presidential election the following year, vowing to restore stability to a country rocked by upheaval since 2011.

He’s failed so far to quell a militant insurgency based in the Sinai despite a crackdown on the opposition that’s killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and jailed thousands of others since Mursi’s ouster. An economic reform plan that helped Egypt to win a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan has rallied foreign currency reserves, but has also worked to send inflation above 30 percent, deepening hardship in the largely impoverished country.

Only a few candidates have come forward so far for next year’s election. They include human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, whose bid may be curtailed by a possible legal case. Another is a little-known army colonel, Ahmed Konsowa, who announced his candidacy in a video the same night as Shafiq. He has not appeared in public since.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mirette Magdy in Cairo at mmagdy1@bloomberg.net, Zaid Sabah in Washington at zalhamid@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Kevin Costelloe

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