Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Monday confirmed he will run for a new term in the elections scheduled for December, The Associated Press reported.
Last it week it was announced that Egypt will hold a presidential election over three days on December 10-12, with a runoff on Jan. 8-10 if no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote.
Al-Sisi confirmed his candidacy at the end of a three-day national conference called the “Story of Homeland” attended by the country’s leading politicians and broadcast by Egypt’s Extra News television channel, which has close ties to Egyptian security agencies.
“I have decided to nominate myself to you to complete the dream of a new presidential term,” Al-Sisi said, according to AP.
Al-Sisi, a former defense minister, led the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He was first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018 for a second four-year term. Constitutional amendments, passed in a referendum in 2019, added two years to his second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term.
A handful of politicians have already announced their bids to run for the country’s highest post, but none poses a serious challenge to Al-Sisi. Among the challengers is Ahmed Altantawy, a former lawmaker and critic of the current government.
In the 2018 vote, Al-Sisi faced only a little-known politician named Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested.