Musa Mustafa Musa, the accidental candidate
potential candidates had to drop out because they failed to gain the necessary number of supporters.
All of which has led to speculation that 66-year-old Musa is a “fake” candidate, standing purely for show so that El-Sisi does not run unopposed and the election looks like a genuine poll.
Although he has been politically active opposition Ghad Party after a split with the party leader, Ayman Nour, who lost to Hosni Mubarak in the presidential election of that year. Musa declared himself to be the true leader of the party and stood for parliament in 2010 in a southern Giza constituency but failed to win a seat in the People's Assembly.
In 2014 he launched the Kamel Jamilak (“finish your good deed”) campaign in required 20-plus signatures from parliamentarians and 25,000 eligible voters that would allow him to stand for president.
The following day, the national electoral commission confirmed he had met all the conditions to stand in the 2018 election.
But his campaign has already run into controversy. Candidates for president of Egypt are required to hold at least an undergraduate degree. Musa's background is in contracting and manufacturing in construction, agriculture, textiles and paints, and his qualifications have been questioned by his old party boss, Ayman Nour.
In interviews with the Egyptian press, Musa said he had a bachelor's degree in architecture from a French university. But Nour claimed Musa only holds a qualification from an industrial technical institute, to which Musa responded — somewhat confusingly — that his diploma was equivalent to a master's degree.
As well as leading the Ghad party after 2011, he has also been president of the Egyptian Council of Egyptian and Arab Tribes, and chaired the Arab Council for Development Projects since 2016.
He announced he was running for president in the 2012 election but never submitted his candidacy papers, despite claiming widespread support in 20 of Egypt's 27 provinces. This was well within the requirements of the 2014 Presidential Elections Act, which stipulates candidates must collect signatures of support from at least 25,000 eligible voters in at least 15 provinces or governorates.
In response to accusations that his candidacy is “phony,” Musa has threatened to sue anyone who calls for an election boycott, which he says would amount to an act of betrayal.
“Those who call for a boycott want to embarrass Egypt before the countries of the world,” he said.
He also says he see no contradiction in his being both a supporter of El-Sisi and his electoral opponent.
“If I don't succeed (in winning the election), I will be in solidarity with president El-Sisi,” he said.