Sole presidential candidate must receive 3M votes to win

CAIRO – 25 January 2018: If there is only one candidate in the presidential election, he must receive three million votes to win the election, according to the law regarding presidential elections.

Article 36 of the Egyptian presidential election law indicates that a sole candidate in the presidential election must receive support from five percent of the voters whose names are registered in the voter database.

As there are a total of 60 million Egyptians eligible to vote, five percent is estimated at 3 million voters.

A member of the campaign backing President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s presidential election, Hani Hamam, stated that if no one is nominated before Sisi, the elections will be held on a normal date set by the National Election Authority (NEA).

Egyptian TV presenter Amr Adeeb revealed during his talk show "Kol Yom" (Everyday) on Tuesday how to deal with the presidential election if President Sisi is the only candidate.

He stated that, according to the constitution, the Egyptian president can serve for a maximum of two four-year terms.

He also added that if the candidate fails to obtain the required number of votes, then the NEA should set a new date for elections within 15 days of the announcement of the poll results.

President Sisi declared on Wednesday that Ambassador Mahmoud Karem will be the general coordinator for his presidential campaign and that Mohamed Bahaa el-Din Abu Shoka will be his legal representative and his presidential campaign’s spokesperson.

Sisi has submitted his candidacy file to the NEA, including his medical checkup documents, tens of thousands of endorsement forms and over 500 recommendations from the 596-member House of Representatives, the NEA said.

On January 19, President Sisi announced his candidacy for a second term in the 2018 presidential election, which is scheduled to be held on March 26-28 for Egyptians residing in Egypt.

The announcement came during Sisi’s closing speech at the end of the three-day “Tale of a Homeland” conference, where the president and the Egyptian government presented an overview of projects and achievements made in different fields during the last four years.

Sisi also expressed his intention to run for president on his official Twitter account, calling on the Egyptian people to participate intensively in the upcoming elections by voting for whomever they see most eligible. Sisi won by nearly 97 percent of votes in the 2014 presidential elections.

A total of 850,000 endorsement forms have been signed by citizens for potential candidates, the NEA announced in a Monday press release, without giving a breakdown of the signatures.

Egyptian rights lawyer Khaled Ali declared on Wednesday that he will not run for president in the upcoming election, after previously stating his intention to run.

Ahmed Shafiq has also withdrawn, Samy Anan has been summoned for a forgery probe, and Mortada Mansour said in 2012 and 2014 that he would run, but never did.

The first round of the presidential elections in Egypt will take place between March 26 and 28, and the second round between April 24 and 28, the NEA announced in a televised statement on January 8.