An Islamic activist on Monday announced his intent to run in the coming presidential election through his party, which was frozen during the reign of ex-president Hosni Mubarak.
Magdi Hussein, secretary general for the banned, Islamic-oriented Labor Party, said he only decided to nominate himself after he "was surprised to find that all of those who announced their intention to run in the presidential election did not have the minimum of requirements to assume the leadership of Egypt."
At a press conference on Monday, Hussein said he will run in the election to satisfy the demands of the revolution and begin a new phase of development through the implementation of a massive scientific project.
"If I had found a single candidate who satisfied the minimum of requirements, I would not have nominated myself," he said. "But I will not leave Egypt to be ruled by someone who will take permission from the US to cultivate wheat or to make a rocket."
Hussein was the chief editor of the Al-Shaab newspaper, which was produced by the Labour Party in the 1990s. He is currently the general coordinator for Kefaya.
In February 2009, the Egyptian Military Court sentenced Hussein, the former secretary-general of Egypt's banned Islamic-oriented Labor Party, to prison for crossing the Egyptian border into the Gaza Strip during Israel's Cast Lead operation two years ago. He was released last January.
Hussein added that he will gather 30,000 signatures — the condition stipulated in the approved constitutional amendments for independent presidential candidates — to run in the election.
He said if elected president, he would keep the Camp David Accords as long as Israel did not attack Egypt. However, he said, normalization with Israel cannot be obligatory.
