SISI TO RUN FOR SECOND TERM IN EGYPT
▶ President formally declares his candidacy as former military chief of staff says he will also stand
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi has formally declared his candidacy for a second term in office in an election he is widely expected to win, although a new challenger has stepped forward.
In a televised speech, the former general promised that the vote would be “free and transparent and be characterised by equal opportunities between candidates”.
The election will be held between March 26 and 28, with a run-off vote between April 24 and 26 if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent in the first round.
Candidates have until January 29 to register.
“Building the state takes 16 to 20 years,” Mr El Sisi said on Friday night. “I am trying to finish it in eight years, God willing.”
Hours later, former Egyptian military chief of staff Sami Anan said he intended to challenge Mr El Sisi in the March election.
“I call on civilian and military institutions to maintain neutrality towards everyone who had announced their intention to run and not take unconstitutional sides of a president who will leave his post in a few months,” Mr Anan said on his official Facebook page yesterday.
He said that he had formed his civilian presidential team, which includes Hisham Genena, a former policeman and judge who was appointed to head Egypt’s corruption watchdog in 2012 and sacked by Mr El Sisi in 2016.
Mr Anan’s Arabism Egypt Party said this month it had made “a decision for Gen Sami Anan’s candidacy and informed him of the decision and there was no problem at all and no objection”.
Other potential presidential challengers have described a sweeping effort by the government to kill off their campaigns before they had begun, with media attacks on candidates, intimidation of supporters and a nomination process stacked in favour of Mr El Sisi.
He said on Friday that he would not allow people who knew to be corrupt “to come near this chair”.
Mohammed Sadat, a nephew of former president Anwar Sadat, dropped out of the running on Monday saying he saw no possibility of a fair race against Mr El Sisi.
Former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq this month backtracked on his announcement to run, saying he had realised he was “not the ideal candidate”.
Khaled Ali, a leftist lawyer and opponent of the handover of the Tiran and Sanafir Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, has said he will run but may be disqualified over his conviction for offending public decency by making a rude gesture while celebrating a court decision against the transfer.
The only remaining probable candidate is Mortada Mansour, an MP and chairman of Zamalek, one of Egypt’s biggest football teams.
Mr El Sisi led the army’s removal of president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, becoming president the following year.
In that election he won 96.91 per cent of the vote, although turnout was about 47 per cent of the 54 million voters, even after voting was extended for a day.