CAIRO, April 6 (Aswat Masriya) Mortada Mansour, Head of Zamalek Sporting Club, announced on Sunday he will run for president in the election due next month, the third candidate to formally enter the race.

Mansour said in a televised press conference that he aimed for Egypt to be "Strong and capable of maintaining its status as a nation after it had lost it for internal and external reasons."

The potential candidate demanded that all sit-ins and strikes be halted for one year so that "Egypt recovers."

He added that he wanted "Egypt to be a developed nation that respects its citizens and their diginity and maintains their health and education."

Mansour ran for the 2012 election but he was disqualified as his party [National Party of Egypt] nominated another candidate. The party had no legal representative to settle the dispute and therefore lost its chance to nominate any candidates.

So far, two political figures have announced running for election; Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who recently resigned from his position as Defence Minister to run for the post, and Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 presidential election.

The election will run on May 26 and 27. The result of the first round will be announced no later than June 5.

If there was no winner in the first round, the second round will be held on June 16 and 17 and the winner will be announced on June 26.