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Egypt Election: Sisi’s Sole Challenger Registers at Last Minute

Egypt Election: Sisi’s Sole Challenger Registers at Last Minute
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Local Editor

A little-known Egyptian politician added his name to the candidate list for elections in March, minutes before a nomination deadline was set to pass with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi the sole officially recognized candidate.

Egypt Election: Sisi’s Sole Challenger Registers at Last Minute

Any candidate representing genuine opposition to Sisi has either been arrested or intimidated into dropping out.

After the rightwing politician Mortada Mansour rescinded his candidacy, a chaotic race to find a challenger - and provide a veneer of democracy to the election - stretched into Monday.

As the 2pm deadline loomed, a candidate from the pro-government centrist Ghad party suddenly emerged in the form of Mousa Mostafa Mousa.

Mousa reportedly found eleventh-hour endorsements from at least 26 members of parliament, as well as 47,000 signatures from the public, despite not publicly declaring his intention to run until the day before the deadline.

According to local outlet Al-Masry Al-Youm, Mousa submitted his candidacy just fifteen minutes before the deadline closed, although reports of his endorsements appeared in local media hours prior.

He told the privately-owned Youm7 tabloid that he had been contemplating running for the past ten days, and that those who endorsed him were "a group of old friends and acquaintances".

Mousa denied widespread allegations that he was cooperating with the government, saying "we are not puppets in this race".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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