Paris, Dhu-AlQa'dah 19, 1437, August 22, 2016, SPA -- France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Monday he would run again for the presidency in next year's elections, according to dpa. The 61-year-old announced his candidacy in a post on Twitter. He is also to resign from his position as head of the centre-right party Les Republicains, the news agency AFP reported. In France, Sarkozy's intention of running for presidency was an open secret, but a prerequisite for November's primaries was resigning from his post by Thursday. Roughly a dozen other candidates have announced their candidacy. In 2012, Sarkozy ran for president but lost in the runoff elections to current President Francois Hollande. The 2017 presidential elections are to be held April 23 and May 7. --SPA 22:58 LOCAL TIME 19:58 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w