464 MPs signs recommendation forms supporting President Sisi

CAIRO – 10 January 2018: Out of 596 parliamentarians, 464 members, including Speaker Ali Abdul Aal, signed recommendation forms to persuade President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to run for a second presidential term in the 2018 elections scheduled for March.

“Since we received the recommendations forms to the Parliament headquarters, about 464 member of parliament signed it. We will continue receiving signatures during the coming period,” Counselor Mohamed Nouser, Deputy Secretary-General of Parliament said in statements to Egypt Today.

Voting in the 2018 presidential election in Egypt will start on March 26, as announced by the NEC on Monday, January 8. 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.

In a press conference held by NEC Chairman Lasheen Ibrahim on Monday, he affirmed that the final list of the candidates will be announced on February 24, 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, when 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 permitted to spend LE 5 million in the run-off round.

“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 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 run for the upcoming presidential elections as a second term,” read the first press statement released by the To Build It campaign.

Incumbent President 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.

According to Article 140 of the Egyptian Constitution, electoral procedures should begin a minimum of 120 days before the end of the current presidential term and the president-elect should be announced a minimum of 30 days before the end of the previous president’s term, which ends in June.

Electoral procedures consist of receiving and scrutinizing applications and appeals, as well as setting the electoral lists and campaign regulations.