Egypt's 2018 Presidential election timeline

CAIRO – 8 January 2017: Voting in the 2018 presidential election in Egypt will start on March 26, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced in a televised statement on Monday.

Sixty million eligible voters will cast their ballots in the election on March 26-28 in Egypt, while expatriates will vote on March 16-18, said NEC Chairman Lasheen Ibrahim in a press conference.

The final list of the candidates will be announced on February 24, he added, noting that the deadline for any candidate to retreat will be on March 1. The primary results of the first round of the election will be announced on March 29, where decisions on appeals submitted by candidates, if any, will be made.

The final results of the first round will be announced on April 2.

If no candidate obtains the majority of votes, a three-day run-off round will commence in Egypt on April 24, and on April 19 abroad.

The name of the winning candidate will be announced on May 1, Ibrahim stated.

The NEC previously announced that presidential candidates will have a ceiling of LE 20 million to spend on their electoral campaign in the first round, while they are only permissible to spend LE 5 million in the run-off round.

Whom do we know so far running for president?

Human Rights Lawyer Khaled Ali, who ran for president in 2012, announced in November 2017 that he is running for the presidential election.

On Sunday, former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik reversed his previous decision to run for president, acknowledging he is not the "ideal person" to lead the nation at the moment.

Shafik, 76, fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2012 following his defeat in the presidential elections to the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi. He returned this past November revealing his intent to run again for president.

“Alashan Tbneeha” (To Build It), a public campaign calling for President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to run for a second term as the head of the state, held its third press conference in December to announce the total number of signatures collected.

“The campaign collected 12,132,460 valid signatures, while a total of 239,361 signed forms were null and void,” announced one of the campaign’s founders, Mohamed al-Garhy.

“The campaign’s goal is to secure and protect our homeland so it demands that President Sisi runs for the upcoming presidential elections as a second term,” read the first press statement released by the To Build It campaign.

Sisi is the sixth president of Egypt. He came to office in June 2014 after the June 30 Revolution, which toppled former President Mohamed Morsi, who is affiliated with the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The Egyptian constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as President of Egypt, including: age no less than 40 years old, Egyptian nationality is a must.


Here are articles of the constitution organizing such requirements:

Article 141: Conditions for candidacy

A presidential candidate must be Egyptian, born to Egyptian parents, and neither he/she, their parents or their spouse may have held another citizenship. They must have civil and political rights, must have performed their military service or have been exempted by the law, and cannot be younger than 40 years old on the day candidacy
registration is opened. Other requirements for candidacy are determined by the law.

Article 142: Conditions for candidacy

To be accepted as a candidate for the presidency, candidates must be
recommended by at least 20 elected parliamentarians, or endorsed by at least 25,000 citizens who have the right to vote, in at least 15 governorates, with a minimum of 1,000 supporter from each governorate.

Other requirements include:

1- Must be a bachelor’s degree holder.

2- Must not have committed any felony or crime involving an immoral act or dishonesty. If convicted, he must have been exculpated.

3- Must not be suffering from any physical or mental illness which would hinder performing his official presidential duties.


Additional reporting by Nesma Abdel Azim and Nawal El-Sayed