The official campaign of presidential contender Hamdeen Sabahi has rejected a decision from the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) to extend voting in the poll by an extra day.

"It is a sudden decision, taken surprisingly as a result of pressure from several parties in the first and second days, and is an attempt to impose a certain scenario on Egyptians," said a statement from Sabahi's campaign issued on Tuesday evening.

The campaign said it would continue discussing the implications of the PEC's decision in order to make a suitable decision at the right time.

Earlier in the day, the PEC – the judicial body supervising the election – announced that it had extending voting by a third day, with polling centres to be open on Wednesday nationwide.

The campaign of Sabahi's rival, former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, also issued a complaint against the PEC's decision.

Sabahi's campaign said on Tuesday that it rejected claims in the media that voter turnout had been low during the first two days, arguing that the reports were being used as a pretext for extending the vote and then manipulating the figures.

The statement also referred to electoral violations from Monday and Tuesday. In another announcement on its Facebook page, the campaign called on all its representatives to report all recorded violations to officials at their polling stations.

Meanwhile, a group of Sabahi supporters launched a Twitter campaign on Tuesday night under the hashtag "Withdraw_Hamdeen" to urge the Nasserist politician to withdraw from the race in protest against the PEC's decision.