The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat said on Monday he would not, as widely expected, challenge incumbent Abdel Fattah Sisi in the presidential election because an environment of fear surrounds the vote.



Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and easily win a ballot slated for March 26-28.



Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, whose uncle led a sweeping economic liberalization program and opened ties with Israel before his assassination in 1981, had previously said he was mulling a run.



Though unlikely to upset Sisi's campaign, it would have carried the weight of a household name likely to garner some support. </s> CAIRO (REUTERS) - The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat said on Monday (Jan 15) he would not, as widely expected, challenge incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the presidential election because an environment of fear surrounds the vote.

General Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and easily win a ballot slated for March 26-28.

Mr Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, whose uncle led a sweeping economic liberalisation programme and opened ties with Israel before his assassination in 1981, had previously said he was mulling a run.

Though unlikely to upset Gen Sisi's campaign, it would have carried the weight of a household name likely to garner some support.

Gen Sisi, a general-turned-president, came to power in 2014, a year after he led the military in ousting elected but unpopular Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

Rights groups say Gen Sisi has since led an unprecedented crackdown on political opponents, activists and critical media.

In a news conference accompanied by detailed election brochures and a video supporting his would-be campaign, Mr Sadat announced that he had halted his run, denouncing what he called an election environment of fear where state-aligned media had pushed out opposing voices.

"Our real problem is can we, in this current environment and with what's happening now, move forward? I don't think so... so we've decided that we will not participate."

Mr Sadat said he feared for the safety of supporters who had volunteered to collect votes of confidence required to appear on the ballot.

"People who volunteered to collect votes of confidence were scared away... I'm scared for the young men and women and don't want to expose them to this, because we won't be able to do anything for them," he said.

Last week, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, seen as the most serious potential challenger to date, said he was no longer considering a bid following a firestorm of criticism from state-aligned media and speculation that he was being held by authorities in a Cairo hotel.

Gen Sisi's critics say his popularity has been dimmed by painful economic reforms, security problems and a crackdown on dissidents. Still, he is expected to readily win an election that has seen few serious challengers come forward. </s> A former Egyptian lawmaker says he has decided not to run in the presidential election in March, saying the political "climate" isn't conducive to campaigning.

Mohammed Anwar Sadat, nephew of Egypt's late leader Anwar Sadat, told reporters on Monday that his decision was partially taken to protect his campaign workers from intimidation or arrest by authorities.

He said he "will not contest a lost battle" while also citing emergency laws and a ban on demonstrations as further reasons for his decision.

Sadat, an outspoken critic of the government, was thrown out of parliament last year amid allegations he had leaked official documents to foreign diplomats.

He is the second presidential hopeful to pull out of the election, which is virtually certain to be won by the incumbent, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. </s> Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat says he doubts there will be genuine competition and indicates he may wait until 2022

The nephew of the assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat has dramatically announced he will not run in March’s presidential election, blaming an environment of fear surrounding the vote.

After releasing campaign materials over the weekend Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat called a press conference for Monday morning at which it was widely expected that he would announce his candidacy.

Standing in a room in Cairo packed with journalists and adorned with banners bearing his name, he spoke of how he had been preparing for the election since he was expelled from Egypt’s parliament a year ago.



“However, it seems that all of this was not enough,” Sadat said. “My decision not to run primarily has to do with the climate in which you don’t feel there will be a genuine competition or equal opportunities.”

Sadat said he had taken the decision in part to protect his campaign workers from intimidation or arrest. He cited emergency laws in force since last April and a 2013 ban on unauthorised demonstrations as further reasons for his decision.

To his supporters, Sadat is the prodigal son of a prestigious family who has used his status to criticise a draconian regime. To the regime, he has become a rogue outsider.

In an interview with the Guardian on Monday, Sadat indicated that his aborted attempt this year could lay the groundwork for a full campaign in 2022, when Egypt’s incumbent president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, if re-elected this year, would be ineligible to stand again.

“It’s like committing suicide running against someone like this,” he said. “He’s still supported and he has all the ways and means that no one else has. Better to lose a round and stand by and be ready for a second round than bashing your head against a wall.”

“We dream of … an election where the winner is not known until the last moment,” he said.

Sadat was thrown out of parliament last year amid allegations he had leaked official documents to foreign diplomats. He is the second presidential hopeful to pull out of the election, which is virtually certain to be won by Sisi, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy.

Last week Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister with ties to Egypt’s military, announced he was dropping out after reportedly being deported from the UAE and held incommunicado for 24 hours on his return home.

Prior to Monday’s announcement, Sadat had faced accusations of legitimising a draconian regime and an undemocratic election with his candidacy.

Speaking to the Guardian, he denied reports that he was approached by Egypt’s military to encourage his candidacy and give the election a veneer of democracy. “It’s not true,” he said, adding that members of the country’s sprawling security infrastructure had not approached him either. “They consider me a devil,” he said.

Sadat has transformed his political profile from a gentle critic of the former regime of Hosni Mubarak to outright dissenter against Sisi. He founded the liberal Reform and Development party in 2009.

His short-lived campaign, run under the heading “The people rule”, was light on policy but heavy on rhetoric, including rare criticism of Sisi’s four-year term. In recent weeks he provided almost singular criticism of the election itself – which is being held under Egypt’s emergency law – and of a petition demanding that Sisi run for a second term, which Sadat said violated campaign rules.

Sisi swept to power in 2013 after a military coup, buoyed by a cult of personality that lasted through the 2014 election where he obtained 97% of the vote. His rule has been marked by a brutal crackdown on freedom of expression and civil liberties, economic turbulence and increasing attacks by jihadi groups.

He has jailed thousands of opponents, mainly Islamists but also secular activists, including many of those involved in the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak. Street protests have been effectively banned, human rights groups have been placed under severe restrictions and many critics in the media have been silenced.

True opposition in the election is likely to be thin on the ground. Another potential candidate, Colonel Ahmed Konsawa, was sentenced to six years in prison for releasing a video declaring his intention to run while in military uniform. Khaled Ali, a leftist human rights lawyer, last week reiterated his intention to run despite an ongoing trial in which he stands accused of making an obscene gesture. The trial is due to finish three weeks before the election on 28 March.

Under the constitution, any would-be candidate must have formal “recommendations” from at least 20 politicians or 25,000 support signatures from voters, with a minimum of 1,000 each from 15 of Egypt’s 29 provinces. More than 500 of Egypt’s 596 MPs have already endorsed Sisi.

Others who have voiced their intention to run represent a rare schism within the ruling order. They include the former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan, who rose to the highest ranks of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Armed Forces under Mubarak’s 30-year regime, and Mortada Mansour, an MP considered more rightwing than even Sisi. Mansour announced that his first act as president would be to ban access to Facebook. </s> Several leading opposition figures called on Sunday for a boycott of Egypt’s March election, citing a wave of repression that has cleared the field of challengers to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A string of candidates have withdrawn from the election on concerns over intimidation and the arrest of Sisi’s leading challenger, leaving the former general the sole contender only a day before the January 29 nomination deadline.

Former military commander Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to the ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. The election will be the third since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

“We call on our great people to boycott these elections entirely, and to not recognise anything that results from it,” figures from across the political spectrum said in a joint statement.

Signatories included Abdel Moneim Abol Foutoh, an Islamist who garnered nearly a fifth of first round votes in a 2012 presidential race; Hesham Genena, a prominent former anti-corruption watchdog chief; and Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who halted his own presidential bid this month out of concern for the safety of his campaigners.

Representatives from the president’s office and the electoral commission were not immediately available for comment on Sunday. The president’s office has not commented previously on the election race.

Over the weekend, the Salafist party, endorsed Sisi’s candidature saying ‘the current president is in the best position to carry out these immense tasks’.

Two other potential candidates in the presidential race, legislator Mortada Mansour and Sayed El-Badawi of the old Liberal Party, withdrew their bids on Saturday. Badawi went ahead to endorse Sisi as a sole presidential candidate.

The electoral commission has said that it will ensure the vote is fair and transparent.

Sunday’s statement calling for a boycott said that the state’s policies were paving the way for extended limits to presidential terms and are “removing any opportunity for the peaceful transfer of power”.

In a separate statement Sadat called on party leaders and public figures to join him in a peaceful march to the presidential palace to demand a meeting with Sisi to discuss “democratic transition” and a repressive media environment, though he did not specify a date.

The call to boycott comes a day after Genena was attacked and badly wounded outside his home in what his lawyer described as an attempted kidnapping.

Genena had been working to elect former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan, whose campaign had emerged as the most formidable challenge to Sisi before Anan was arrested last week and accused of running for office without military permission. </s> The head of a minor Egyptian political party on Monday registered at the last minute to challenge President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the March presidential election, the official MENA news agency reported.

Moussa Mustafa Moussa, of the al-Ghad Party, submitted the documents for his candidacy just minutes before the election authority's deadline for accepting applications, becoming al-Sisi's only rival. </s> FILE PHOTO: Former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq attends a news conference in Cairo, Egypt May 14, 2012. Photo: Reuters

JOHANNESBURG – Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik has said via his Twitter account he will no longer challenge incumbent President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in this year’s elections.

“I saw that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state during the coming period. Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections,” Shafik said in a statement posted on the social media site on Sunday.

The former air force commander had been seen as the most serious challenge to Sisi even though the president has not officially announced his candidacy.

Egypt’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) will on Monday afternoon announce the timetable of the country’s upcoming presidential elections – expected in the spring of 2018 – and details of the electoral process.

The independent NEC, established by a presidential decree in August 2017, is a 10-member commission and has sole responsibility for supervising general elections and referendums in Egypt.

The president of Egypt is elected using the two-round system, as outlined in Egypt’s constitution.

Election proceedings are to begin no later than 120 days before the end date of the current presidential term on June 7, 2018, and results will be announced no later than 30 days before the end of the current presidential term.

The last presidential elections were held in May 2014, with Sisi securing 96 percent of the vote against his sole competitor, Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist and leader of the Egyptian Popular Current party Hamdeen Sabahi. </s> Bomb kills two in Alexandria ahead of Egypt presidential vote

An Egyptian forensics team checks the location of a bombing in Alexandria, Egypt March 24, 2018. — Reuters picCAIRO, March 24 — A bomb placed under a car exploded in Egypt’s second city Alexandria today, killing two people including a policeman, two days before the country is due to hold a presidential election.

The bombing, which wounded four other policemen, targeted Alexandria’s security chief, police Major General Mostafa al-Nemr, the interior ministry said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. Islamic State released a video last month in which it warned Egyptians against taking part in the upcoming vote and urged Islamists to attack security forces and leaders.

State news agency MENA quoted Nemr as saying that two people, a policeman and a driver, were killed in the blast.

Photos on social media that Reuters could not independently verify showed a burnt out car and smoke at the site of the blast.

“On Saturday March 24 an explosive device planted underneath a car exploded ... as the Alexandria security chief drove by,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses said police and military personnel formed a cordon around the site of the explosion. Local television stations later showed Nemr unharmed and inspecting the area.

Islamic State attempted to assassinate Egypt’s defence and interior ministers in December during a trip the pair made to the Sinai Peninsula, where the hardline militant group has been waging an insurgency for almost five years.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Friday that Islamic State militants would soon be defeated in the Sinai as he visited troops battling the jihadists there.

Polls will open on Monday when voters choose between Sisi and one little-known candidate who supports the former field marshal. All credible opponents dropped out in January, citing intimidation by the authorities after the main challenger was jailed.

Sisi’s critics say he has cracked down harshly on dissent and that tough economic reforms have eroded his popularity. Supporters say such measures are needed to stabilise Egypt, which was rocked by years of unrest after protests toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

As military commander, Sisi led the ousting of Egypt’s only competitively-elected leader, President Mohamed Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was toppled amid demonstrations against his rule in 2013, a year after taking power. Sisi took office with a landslide election victory a year later.

State news agency MENA blamed the Brotherhood, which is now banned in Egypt and designated a terrorist group, for Saturday’s bombing.

“This attempt comes in the context of terrorist Muslim Brotherhood elements trying to disrupt the electoral process and influence citizens into not going to the polls and participating in the presidential election,” the agency said.

Islamic State and other militant groups have successfully assassinated officials in recent years. Islamic State bombed a hotel in Sinai in 2015 during a parliamentary election, killing seven people including two judges overseeing the vote.

Egypt’s top public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, was killed by a car bomb in June 2015. — Reuters </s> Egyptian politician Mousa Mostafa Mousa said on Monday he would compete in presidential elections, hours before a nomination deadline was set to make President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the sole candidate after withdrawals and a boycott call.

Several leading opposition figures called for a boycott on Sunday, of the March election, citing a wave of repression that has cleared the field of challengers to Sisi and left his top opponent in jail.

Former military commander Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to oust Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

He is expected to easily win the vote, the third since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Several opposition candidates who had earlier expressed interest in contesting for the presidency have since withdrawn their bids, citing intimidation from state agencies and an electoral process biased to favor the incumbent.

Mousa, who leads the Ghad party, told Reuters he was at the electoral commission registering his candidacy after having collected the required number of nomination pledges.

Mousa, who studied architecture in France and heads the Egyptian Council for Arab Tribes, became the chairperson of El-Ghad Party in September, 2005, following fierce disputes with the party’s founder Ayman Nour who founded El-Ghad Party in 2004.

Would-be candidates were required to register by 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Monday after clinching at least 20 nominations from parliament or 25,000 pledges from citizens across the country.

The electoral commission has since closed the nominations and will announce the final list of presidential candidates on Wednesday as per the electoral schedule.

Voting in the 2018 presidential election in Egypt will commence on March 26, as announced by the National Electoral Authority (NEA) on January 8. Sixty million eligible voters will cast their ballots in the election between March 26 and 28 in Egypt, while expatriates will vote between March 16 and 18.
The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat announces that he will not run in March’s presidential election, blaming an environment of fear surrounding the vote.