Egypt's Sisi announces run for second presidential term

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Friday his bid for a second term in office in a March election.

Egypt is set to hold presidential voting on 26-28 March, with a run-off on 24-26 April. Candidates must register between 20 January and 29 January.

Former armed forces chief of staff General Sami Anan also will run in Egypt's presidential election in March, his party said on 11 January.

"The party leaders took a decision for General Sami Anan’s candidacy and informed him of the decision, and there was no problem at all and no objection" from him, said Sami Balah, the secretary general of the Arabism Egypt Party.

Anan was the second-ranking member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which ran the country after a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak early in 2011.

After president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected in 2012, he announced the retirement of Anan and other top military officials in a move seen as an attempt to loosen the military’s grip on power after the country’s first free election.

Morsi was overthrown by the army the following year, and then-commander Sisi went on to become president in 2014.

Earlier this month, former prime minister and air force commander Ahmad Shafiq abandoned his bid for the presidency.

Shafiq, who narrowly lost to Morsi in 2012, was threatened with allegations of sexual misconduct and corruption if he did not withdraw his candidacy, sources close to the ex-prime minister told Middle East Eye in early January.