2018 presidential election schedule to be announced on Monday

CAIRO – 2 January 2018: The schedule of Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections will be announced officially on Monday in a global press conference at the National Election Commission (NEC), according to a statement by NEC Chief Mahmoud el-sherif on Tuesday.

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

Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik announced his intention to run for president in 2018. Despite issuing a statement, he then reversed his decision, suggesting that he may run for the presidential elections but has not made up his mind as of yet.

The second candidate who officially announced his intention to run for the presidential elections in 2018 is former presidential candidate and human rights lawyer, Khaled Ali.

“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.

Incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-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.

The NEC is an independent institution running all types of elections and referendums in the country, currently chaired by Chancellor Lashin Ibrahim Mohamed, who also serves as vice-president of the court of cassation.

The NEC launched an official website for both the parliamentary and presidential elections. The new website aims to publish all the resolutions and recommendations pertaining to the elections, in addition to the voting guides for Egyptians inside and outside Egypt.

President Sisi previously issued a presidential decree to start the formation of the National Electoral Commission as an independent national authority entitled to supervise the integrity of the electoral process. The authority's board of directors consists of nine judges from diverse judicial bodies.