Adel Abdel Maqsoud, head of the Salafi-led Asala Party, announced Saturday that the party's candidate Abdullah al-Ashal submitted his candidacy papers Saturday at the elections commission.
Abdel Maqsoud told Al-Jazeera that the supreme body of the party agreed with Ashal in a meeting that it would back him for presidency.
In agreeing to run, Ash'al reversed his decision to withdrawal from the race on 3 April in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Khairait al- Shater, which he announced at a press conference in the Brotherhood's headquarters. Mohamed Morsy, Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party and the Brotherhood's supreme guide, attended the conference.
Ashal is a professor of International Law at the American University in Cairo. He also served as assistant secretary of foreign affairs of Egypt.
