Egypt sets presidential vote for May 26 and 27

CAIRO // Egypt’s presidential elections will be held on May 26-27, 10 months after the army removed the Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi from the presidency, the electoral commission announced on Sunday.

The retired army chief Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who led the ouster of Mr Morsi, is expected to win the vote, riding on a wave of popularity for having removed the divisive president last July.

The election would go into a second round on June 16-17 if there is no outright winner, but that outcome seems unlikely given Field Marshal El Sisi’s popularity and the absence of serious contenders.

The only other main candidate is the left-wing politician Hamdeen Sabbahi, who came third in the 2012 election that Mr Morsi won. The new president will be announced by June 26 at the latest, the electoral commsission said.

The commission said registration of candidates would open on Monday and run until April 20, and campaigning from May 3-23.

The announcement of the dates by electoral chief Ashraf Al Asy at a news conference came days after Field Marshal El Sisi resigned as defence minister and army commander to contest the election, pledging to eradicate “terrorism”.

Egypt has been rocked by often violent protests and a spate of militant attacks which have killed almost 500 people, mostly policemen and soldiers, the government says.

Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a “terrorist organisation”, has said there can be no stability under Field Marshal El Sisi as president, accusing him of having staged a coup against Egypt’s first freely elected and civilian president.

The Islamists have vowed to continue protests, which along with persistent militancy, threaten to further damage the country’s already battered economy.

At least 1,400 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in a police crackdown on street protests, according to Amnesty International.

On Friday, five people, including an Egyptian journalist, were killed in clashes between Islamists and police in Cairo.

In Sinai, militants killed a soldier on Sunday, security officials said.

Field Marshal El Sisi has vowed to restore law and order and address the teetering economy, in turmoil since a popular uprising overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

He is supported by a broad range of liberal and nationalist parties.

But some dissidents who supported his ouster of Mr Morsi, after millions demonstrated demanding the Islamist president’s overthrow, now say he is reviving undemocratic practices.

The retired field marshal has said there will be no return to the corruption and human rights violations of the Mubarak era.

According to a road map in a new constitution passed in a January referendum, the presidential contest will be followed by a parliamentary poll to restore elected rule by the end of the year.

Previous polls since Mr Mubarak’s overthrow were all won by the Brotherhood, before a court dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament in 2012.

Many of their former legislators, along with top and mid-level Brotherhood leaders, have been arrested along with an estimated 15,000 people in the police crackdown.

* Agence France-Presse