Cairo, Sept. 25, (dpa/GNA) – Egypt’s presidential election will take place in December, the electoral commission said on Monday.
The presidential polls will be held over three consecutive days beginning December 10, with Egyptians living abroad able to cast their ballots over three days from December 1, the National Election Authority added.
Candidacy registration will open on October 5 until October 14 with the final list of candidates to be released on November 19.
Final results of the vote are to be officially announced on December 18.
The election will take place under full judicial supervision, the commission’s head Walid Hamza, himself a judge, said at a press conference in Cairo. He promised a fair election.
“Say your word in the [ballot] box and decide your fate and future by your hands,” Hamza said, calling on Egyptians to vote in the upcoming election that comes amid an economic crisis in the country of around 105 million.
Around 65 million Egyptians are eligible to vote, according to Egyptian media.
Incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, who has ruled Egypt since 2014, has not officially announced his candidacy, but he is widely expected to run.
After his re-election in 2018, his current term ends next April. Under approved amendments to Egypt’s 2014 constitution, al-Sissi would be allowed to run for one more six-year term.
Several leaders in political parties loyal to al-Sissi have announced their intention to stand for president.
Opposition politician Ahmed al-Tanatawi, an ex-lawmaker, has also said he will run, and accused security agencies of arresting some of his supporters.
A TV interview with potential candidate Farid Zahran was postponed for several days due to what the channel said was technical malfunction.
However, independent news website Mada Masr reported that the recorded interview was not aired as advertised on Saturday because it needed be reviewed first by the channel’s owners, a media group allegedly close to the intelligence service and a staunch supporter of al-Sissi.
Zahran’s Egyptian Social Democratic Party said the interview will finally be broadcast on Monday evening.
In 2013, the army then led by al-Sissi deposed Egypt’s democratically elected but divisive Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Hundreds of Islamists and secular activists have since been arrested in a crackdown that has triggered an outcry from human rights advocates.
In recent months, the Egyptian government has released hundreds of detained dissidents.
GNA