A two-man presidential race for Egypt – Sisi versus Sabahy

The deadline for applications was reached on Sunday, after a third candidate pulled out. The vote will be held towards the end of May.

One day before the deadline the third presidential hopeful Mortada Mansour quit the race and said he will support Former Army chief AbdelFattah EL Sisi. And leftist politician Hamdien Sabahy, managed to complete the required documents for his candidacy application. To give more time for candidates to collect the required letters of endoursment the government decided to make Friday a working day for the notary offices. But Sabahy’s campaigners say they didn’t need that.

"I don’t know why they extended the working day, Hamdien Sabahy didn’t need the notary offices to work on Friday, because we have already completed over 31 thousand letters on Thursday night. From the district I am responsible for the campaign we didn’t take any letters on Friday." Mohamed Anwar, from Hamdien Sabahy Campaign said.

A week earlier Sisi was the first to apply, after over five hundred thousand issued documents of support, according to the state’s newspaper. It was calm at the elections committee on the last day of registration, as no one else was scheduled to apply. Campaigning will officially begin on May third and the national vote is set for 26th and 27th May.

Adel El Mahrouky said, "with only two candidates applying to the race, A run off is out of the question for Egypt’s presidential elections. So Egypt’s new president will be known by the first week of June at the most, a month earlier than previously scheduled."

Up until now, all polls and experts are saying a Sisi victory is inevitable. He gained huge popularity after ousting Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim brotherhood says the elections are illegitimate, but they didn’t say if they’ll vote or boycott as they did before in the January referendum.