Al-Sisi announced his re-election bid Friday night after a three-day conference tagged Story of the Nation
Egypt’s Presidential Election: Al-Sisi Submits Bid to Electoral Body
As time ticks and tocks for the March presidential election in Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Wednesday submitted to the high election commission his re-election bid.
Going by the response from top political class, Al-Sisi may have little opposition to his re-election. Candidates seeking to run in the election should receive endorsements from a minimum of 20 MPs, or 25,000 citizens from at least 15 governorates, with at least 1,000 endorsements from each governorate. According to the Egyptian constitution, the president is entitled to run for a second four-year term, Egypt Daily News said.
According to a report, Bahaa Abu Shoqa, Spokesman for al-Sisi’s campaign, handed the candidacy papers to the commission.
Al-Sissi came to power in 2014, a year after he led the overthrow of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi. So far, he was the only candidate who submitted his papers for the election, scheduled to take place over three days beginning on March 26. Samy Annan, former army chief of staff, was banned from running on Tuesday after the military announced that he was facing investigation on suspicion of breaching military regulations.
But more contenders have merely declared intentions.
At the end of a three-day conference on Friday, Fattah Al-Sisi announced that he will run. The president also tweeted his intention to run. “Allow me to announce my bid to run for the upcoming presidential term and what I hope from you is to show the world the scale of your participation in the presidential election regardless of your choice #StoryOfANation”, the tweet read, the hashtag referring to the name of the conference.
He called on Egyptian voters to go to the polls to “show the world the size of participation in the election”, regardless of their choice of candidate.
“Promise you that the upcoming presidential election will be a title for freedom and transparency, and that the candidates will have equal opportunities”, he said.
Thousands have already signed endorsements for Al-Sisi, with several campaigns starting mass conferences gearing to support the president. The president had always stated that he would not run for re-election against the people’s will.
On 8 January, Egypt’s National Electoral Commission announced that the 2018 presidential election would begin abroad on 16 March and on 26 March in Egypt. Also, if needed, a run-off will be held in April if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote.
Candidates must present their application between 20 and 29 January, and the official list of those running will be published in state-run Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar newspapers by the end of January
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