Egypt's powerful army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, said on Thursday that he will run in the presidential election that he is widely expected to win.
Kuwait newspaper Al-Seyassah published what it said was an interview with Sisi, in which the 59-year-old general was quoted as saying that he “would fulfil people’s demands to run in the presidential election” due to be held before mid-April. But army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali said: "What was published in Al-Seyassah is merely journalistic speculation and not a direct statement from Field Marshal El-Sisi.” He described the report as “inaccurate”.
Sisi’s “decision to run or not for the presidency would be “personally taken in front of the great Egyptian people, clearly and directly, without doubt or speculation,” he said. Ali’s statement called on local and international media to be careful while disseminating news about military leaders. The report by the Kuwaiti newspaper came a week after the powerful military council gave a green signal to Sisi to contest the first presidential elections after the army deposed the country’s first freely elected president Morsi in July last year amid mass protests against his rule. “Yes, the matter has been decided and I have no choice but to respond to the call of the Egyptian people,” Sisi, was quoted as saying.