Egypt's presidential race starts with expected easy win for President Sisi
CAIRO - The campaigning for Egypt's 2018 presidential election continued Sunday for the second day, as incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to score an easy win in the polls late March.
The campaigning officially started Saturday for the two-candidate election, which will be held on March 26-28. The result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.
Since the start of the campaigning, main streets and squares in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, have been decorated with signs, banners, posters and placards supporting Sisi's re-election.
Sisi's sole rival in the race is little known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, chairman of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or disqualified for violations.
In downtown Cairo, Sisi's posters and banners of different sizes could be seen everywhere on the streets, squares, buildings, store fronts, main bridges and bus stations.
They are all accompanied by slogans in support of the incumbent president, such as "Think it right, Sisi is right," "With all love, we support Sisi's reelection," and "Egypt's workers support Sisi to continue development projects."
However, posters and signs in support of Moussa, if any, could hardly be seen anywhere.
Sisi came to office in mid-2014, a year after he, then army chief, led the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in response to mass protests against Morsi's one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Last December, a pro-Sisi non-official campaign called "So That You Can Build It (Egypt)," launched by some politicians and lawmakers, said it collected over 12 million signatures from Egyptians who support Sisi's reelection for a second term.
Later in January, the majority of Egyptian parliament members signed a recommendation form urging Sisi to run again for a four-year term, the last one for him according to the Egyptian constitution.
