Sabbahi urges parties to pick candidate for next presidential elections

CAIRO – 7 May 2017: Politician Hamdeen Sabbahi, leader of the Egyptian Popular Current, called on political forces and parties to agree on a consensual presidential candidate for the upcoming election in 2018, according to BBC Arabic.

This came during a speech delivered by Sabbahi on Saturday in a conference held by the Karama (Dignity) Party at its headquarters in Cairo to announce its merger with the Egyptian Popular Current, creating the Karama Current Party.

Sabbahi announced that he would not run for president during the upcoming election. “I ran for president twice, in 2012 and 2014, and I want you now to choose another candidate whom I will support,” Sabbahi said according to the BBC report.

Sabbahi ran for president in Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential election after the 2011 January revolution in 2012, when he finished third after former President Mohamed Morsi and Air Chief Marshal Ahmed Shafiq.

He ran for the second time in 2014 against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who won more than 96 percent of the nearly 23 million votes cast.
Egypt’s next presidential election is slated for May 2018.