Egypt president’s last election rival pulls out

EGYPT is heading towards elections with only the president’s name on the ballot after his last real challenger dropped out of the race last night.

One by one, political figures who have stepped forward to oppose Abdel Fattah el-sisi have been arrested or intimidated out of the race and yesterday the only candidate still standing, Khaled Ali, a labour lawyer, said he too was withdrawing.

“The people’s confidence in the possibility of turning the election into an opportunity for a new beginning is unfortunately over,” Mr Ali told his supporters. “Today, we announce our decision that we will not run this race and we will not go forward with our nomination papers in a contest that was exhausted before it began.”

Mr Ali dropped out one day after the arrest of Sami Anan, a former senior army general who was seen as a potential heavyweight opponent for Mr Sisi.

Mr Anan was dragged from his car by armed men on Tuesday and taken before a military court for allegedly violating army rules about entering politics. He has not been seen since.

Some minor figures want to run but none seem to likely to gather the 25,000 signatures needed by next week to qualify for the March election.