Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Egyptian Presidential Race: Let the games begin

We are now on the road to the Presidential race, as Egypt’s National Elections Authority “NEA” announced the roadmap for the Egyptian Presidential elections on Monday.

According to the NEA, the presidential election race will kick off officially on 5 October and will end on 18 December, in case there are no runoffs.

Here is the roadmap for the 2023 Egyptian presidential election, as announced by (NEA):

September 25-October 4: Presidential hopefuls must secure endorsements from 20 MPs or 25,000 proxies from registered voters across at least 15 governorates, with a minimum of 1,000 proxies from each governorate.

October 5-14: The NEA will receive requests for candidacy from the presidential hopefuls.

October 16: The NEA will announce the official initial list of presidential candidates.

October 22: The NEA will announce the reason for any disqualifications.

November 9: The NEA will issue the final list of presidential candidates.

November 29: Electoral silence will begin abroad.

December 1-3: Egyptians abroad will vote outside Egypt.

December 8: Electoral silence will begin in Egypt.

December 10-12: Egyptians inside Egypt will vote.

December 13: The public electoral commission will finish counting votes.

December 14: The NEA will receive appeals.

December 15-16: The NEA will issue its appeal rulings.

December 18: The NEA will announce the results. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates. “As if we do not know it already”

If there is a runoff:

December 19, 2023-January 4, 2024: Electoral campaigns will be allowed abroad.

January 5-7: Egyptians abroad will cast their votes.

December 19, 2023-January 7, 2024: Electoral campaigns will be allowed nationwide.

January 8-10: Egyptians inside Egypt will cast their votes.

January 11: The electoral commission will finalize counting votes.

January 12: The NEA will receive appeals.

January 13-14: The NEA will issue its appeal rulings.

January 16: The winner of the runoff will be announced.

--

Shortly after the NEA's press conference in Cairo, thousands of people nationwide were seen standing in line at notary offices to issue proxies to incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. 

El-Sisi's supporters
The photos were released by the MENA news agency showing thousands 
in the queue to issue a proxy for El-Sisi

El-Sisi has not yet announced his intention to run for a third presidential term, but he appears to have already secured the support of both parties and citizens within the first 24 hours.

Before the NEA’s presser, Egypt’s Civil Democratic Movement, the country’s biggest active opposition bloc issued a statement.

The Movement said its decision to participate in the presidential elections was deferred until the NEA issued its decisions regarding the necessary measures to ensure the freedom and integrity of the elections.

El-Sisi's supporters
El-Sisi's supporters were in queues waiting to issue a proxy 

“The movement unanimously reiterated its commitment to holding genuine and fair elections without interference from state institutions or favouritism towards any specific candidate.” The statement said.

Following the NAE’s presser, the movement issued another statement expressing shock at the timeline for the upcoming presidential election.

The movement said that the NEA's announcement that the period for collecting the necessary proxies to complete the nomination requirements will begin on September 25 and end on October 14 is extremely short.

“It is a clear indication that there is an attempt to obstruct candidates and prevent them from collecting the 25,000 popular proxies required from 15 governorates, with a minimum of 1,000 proxies from each governorate.” The movement said.

The movement said it found no justification for this timeline other than the ongoing efforts of the authorities to undermine all conditions for holding serious, real, and competitive elections in which the public can express their will freely in elections that witness real competition.

“It also seemed strange and suspicious that newspapers and news platforms circulated images of {crowds}lining up in front of notary offices to support the current president immediately after the NEA announced the timeline, in practices that remind us of the practices of the authorities in the previous, weak "elections" in 2018,” The movement said.

The movement has got three presidential hopefuls so far: Ahmed El-Tantawy, Gameela Ismail and Fareed Zahran who announced their candidacy last Wednesday.

The supporters of El-Tantawy launched an online campaign to encourage the public to issue proxies for their candidate under the hashtag #My_proxy_is_for_Tantawy in Arabic

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