Egypt Presidential Vote in March as Top El-Sisi Rival Out

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s top election body said Monday that the next presidential election will be held in March, and gave prospective candidates about three weeks to declare. So far the race has only one potential contender: incumbent Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

His most serious possible challenger to date, former premier and air force general Ahmed Shafiq, backed out of contention late Sunday after a mysterious string of events. That left the field wide open to El-Sisi, who hasn’t yet officially tossed his hat into the race.

In a televised press conference, the head of the National Election Authority, Lasheen Ibrahim, said voting in Egypt would take place from March 26-28, while Egyptians abroad would cast their ballots roughly a week earlier, over a three-day period. A second round of voting will be held in April if needed. Candidates must declare between Jan. 20-29, he said, hailing the vote as a testament to democracy.

El-Sisi is widely expected to seek another term, after spending his first taking tough steps dictated by the International Monetary Fund to reform the economy and cracking down on Islamists and critics. He faced one challenger in his 2014 run, winning by a landslide as the popular hero of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi’s ouster a year earlier.

Back From Exile
Shafiq had announced his intention to compete in this year’s race in a video recorded from the United Arab Emirates, where he had been living in self-imposed exile since narrowly losing the 2012 presidential election to Mursi.

But shortly after his return from the U.A.E. early last month, Shafiq disappeared, and his family had feared he’d been kidnapped. Shafiq — Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister — later re-surfaced, saying that he was fine, but was reconsidering his candidacy.

In a statement posted on his official Twitter account Sunday, he concluded “that I’m not the best person to lead the affairs of the state in the coming period and, as a result, I decided not to nominate myself for the 2018 presidential election.”

With that question resolved, he joined a growing list of potential nominees who either withdrew their bids or have seen them blocked.

Khaled Ali, a lawyer and former presidential candidate, is fighting a conviction for making a rude gesture outside a Cairo court earlier last year. Ali is best known for suing the government in 2016 to try to void Egypt’s handover of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

An army colonel, previously unknown before announcing his intention to run in the election, was arrested shortly after publicizing his candidacy in December and has been sentenced to six years in prison by a military court. The court ruled that Colonel Ahmed Konsowa breached military regulations barring active duty officers from running for public office.

Two Terms
El-Sisi is limited to two presidential terms of four years, though there have been calls by some in parliament to extend the term to six. 

During his tenure, he’s secured tens of billions of dollars in aid and grants, including a $12 billion IMF loan, and lifted currency controls to ease a dollar shortage that crippled businesses. But the weakening of the Egyptian pound following its flotation, plus deep cuts in energy subsidies, propelled inflation to more than 30 percent, deepening hardship in the already impoverished nation.

Critics and rights groups, meanwhile, have accused El-Sisi of trampling civil and human rights. A clampdown on Islamists has left hundreds dead and thousands in prison, while an Islamist insurgency centred in the Sinai peninsula has not been quelled.

Source: Bloomberg Business News