Majority of Egypt’s lawmakers want President Sissi to run again

11 January 2018, 8:13 pm

Edit

More than 500 of Egypt’s 596 lawmakers have signed “recommendations” supporting a re-election bid by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, even before he has formally announced his candidacy, according to news reports.

Sissi is considered virtually certain to run in the March 26-28 election and to win a second four-year term. So far, no candidate who can pose a serious challenge to the general-turned-president has emerged.

One prominent potential candidate announced last week he wouldn’t enter the race; two others have faced prosecution in the courts. Most opposition figures are either in jail, living abroad or staying on the sidelines after a general crackdown on dissent since el-Sissi led the military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president.