Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared on 19 January that he will run for a second term in office in the March presidential elections.

Al-Sisi rose to prominence in 2013 when he led the army’s overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate who had been elected in June 2012, two years after the overthrow of longterm ruler Hosni Mubarak. Al-Sisi was elected president following a landslide victory in May 2014 presidential elections, and was sworn into office on 8 June of that year.

The first vote for the 2018 presidential election will be held on 26-28 March, with a run-off vote to be held on April 24-26 if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the first round ballot.

Al-Sisi is expected to comfortably defeat challenges from former army chief of staff Sami Anan and human rights lawyer, Khalid Ali, in the March election. Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, who had been expected to offer the most serious challenge to Al-Sisi in the upcoming elections, publicly withdrew himself from the running earlier in January.