Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to run for re-election in 2018

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has said he will run for re-election in the presidential elections scheduled in March.

Sisi made the announcement on Friday during the final day of "Story of a Nation" conference, where he presented his achievements over the past four years, Xinhua news agency reported.

Egypt will hold its 2018 presidential race from March 26 to 28.

The 10-day candidate registration will start on January 20, while electoral campaigns will kick off on February 24 and the result of the first round will be announced on April 2, according to the country's National Election Authority (NEA).

Sisi said that he shouldered responsibility when he was elected as a president, noting that he exerted great efforts for the sake of the country.

 

The Egyptian President vowed transparent elections, urging voters to go to ballot boxes to choose the next president of Egypt.

A pro-Sisi non-official campaign called "So That You Can Build It (Egypt)" said last December that it collected over 12 million signatures of Egyptians, more than 11 per cent of the population, supporting Sisi to run for a second presidential term.

Egyptian constitution limits the president's number of terms to two.

Sisi took office in mid-2014, a year after he led the ouster of his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against Morsi's one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Egyptian rights and opposition lawyer Khaled Ali announced in November last year his intention to join the presidential race.

However, there is a possibility for Ali's disqualification as he had received a suspended three-month jail term earlier in September over an obscene hand gesture he reportedly made after winning a court order challenging the government.

Meanwhile, former air force commander and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, who fled Egypt after narrowly losing to Morsi in the 2012 elections, announced from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) his intention to run for president.

However, Shafiq came back to Egypt last December and announced his withdrawal from the presidential race earlier this month.