By the end of the registration period on 14 October, four presidential hopefuls had successfully submitted their candidacy papers to the National Election Authority (NEA): incumbent President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi; head of the Wafd Party Abdel-Sanad Yamama; head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party Farid Zahran; and head of the Republican Peoples Party (RRP) Hazem Omar.
Two potential candidates — former MP Ahmed Al-Tantawi and chair of the liberal Dostour Party Gameela Ismail — dropped out of the race.
In a press conference on 13 October, Al-Tantawi said he was ending his campaign after he was able to secure only 14,161 endorsements, less than the minimum 25,000 endorsements required for a presidential bid. He said two thirds of the endorsements he did obtain came from Egyptian expatriates.
Al-Tantawi claimed his supporters had faced intimidation while trying to register their endorsements at notary offices nationwide.
“We faced intimidation from pro-government political parties whose supporters were instructed to make it difficult for our campaign to officially register endorsements at public notary offices,” said Al-Tantawi.
The NEA responded to the claims, saying they were baseless.
Ismail said she had withdrawn her candidacy on the recommendation of the Dostour Party’s General Assembly.
“I wanted to contest the poll and be the first woman to run for president but the party’s General Assembly refused,” she said.
Ismail claimed her supporters had also faced harassment.
“Since the announcement of the election timetable our supporters faced violations in all governorates. I also tried to obtain endorsements from female MPs in the House of Representatives but time ran out.”
Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie regrets the failure of the two opposition figures to join the presidential race.
According to Rabie, opposition divisions had made it difficult for Ismail to join the presidential race. “She failed not because of the failure of her party’s General Assembly to endorse her but because opposition MPs in the House of Representatives chose to give their endorsements to head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party Farid Zahran.”
On Friday, head of the pro-government People’s Republic Party Hazem Omar was the last candidate to submit his candidacy papers. Omar secured 46 endorsements from MPs and 67,071 from citizens. Omar, a businessman and former cabinet minister, was among the founders of the RPP in September 2012. He is chairman of the Vilamoura Tourism Company and CEO of Otco, a commodities trading company.
Omar was appointed to the Senate by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in 2020, and in 2021 was elected chair of the Senate’s Arab, Foreign, and African Affairs Committee.
The RPP Secretary-General Mohamed Salah Abu Himila told Al-Ahram Weekly that a “secretariat-general will be established to oversee the preparation of Omar’s presidential campaign, its funding, administration and promotion.”
Abu Himila said the RPP’s decision to take part in the presidential elections encourages competition and gives the party a platform to present its economic and political vision to voters. “We represent a moderate leftist ideology and seek to counteract the radical liberal policies that have adversely affected the majority of middle-income citizens, worsened the economic situation of farmers and workers, and disadvantaged those on limited incomes,” he said.
President Al-Sisi’s campaign headquarters has received visits from several political groups in recent days. Al-Sisi’s campaign manager Mahmoud Fawzi said the visits reflect overwhelming interest in President Al-Sisi’s election platform and plans for the country.
“President Al-Sisi’s election campaign will use the slogan Let us Complete the Dream and is based on protecting Egypt’s national security, reinforcing internal stability and achieving development in all sectors. We will release the details of the president’s vision before campaigning begins on 9 November,” said Fawzi.
“President Al-Sisi is appealing to voters to turn out in their millions to cast ballots. Egyptians should send a message to the outside world that they are keen to advance democracy in their country.”
Rabie contrasts “the 65 political parties which declared their support for Al-Sisi as the candidate most capable of tackling the challenges facing Egypt in a region rocked with wars and sectarian strife” with the failure of the opposition parties to agree a consensus candidate ahead of the nomination process.
“Egyptian Social Democratic Party head Farid Zahran,” he says, “is now the de facto opposition candidate, which at least means two visions will be competing for the attention of voters.”
Zahran, 66, was one of the founders of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party in 2011. In April 2016, he was elected leader of the party and in 2020 appointed to the Senate by President Al-Sisi. Zahran told the Weekly that his election platform and campaign will be based on the positions of the Egyptian opposition and the Democratic Civilian Movement.
A statement released by the Egyptian Social Democratic Party said Zahran will use his election campaign to lobby for a more democratic system that is capable of resolving the economic crisis caused by the current regime. The statement noted that “after hopes that the Egyptian opposition would unite behind one candidate failed, Farid Zahran should be viewed as the opposition candidate in the 2024 presidential election.”
While Zahran represents leftist forces, the Wafd Party’s Abdel-Sanad Yamama is likely to find it difficult to establish much clear water between himself and the current regime.
Yamama, 70, graduated from Cairo University’s Faculty of Law in 1974 and obtained a PhD in international law from the University of Nancy in France in 1988. He joined the Wafd in 2004 and has been elected to the party’s higher council on three occasions. The lawyer and international law professor was elected party leader in March 2022, succeeding Bahaaeddin Abu Shokka.
Yamama said his election platform will include sweeping political and economic reforms which will require constitutional changes to guarantee “greater political openness and more economic liberalism”.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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