Egypt’s last main opposition candidate in an upcoming presidential election announced he was halting his campaign and withdrawing from the race on Wednesday, saying conditions did not allow for a fair contest.
“We today announce our decision not to enter this race, and will not present our candidacy papers,” the candidate, rights lawyer Khaled Ali, said at a news conference in Cairo.
The announcement came a day after Egyptian authorities detained former army chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Sami Anan, the only other serious potential challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“There has been stubbornness by the electoral commission and many violations against the other candidate,” he said, referring to Anan.
Candidates challenging Sisi have described sweeping efforts to kill off their campaigns before they begin, with media attacks, intimidation of supporters, and a nomination process stacked in favour of el-Sisi, himself a former general.
The 45-year-old Ali rose to national prominence last year when he won a case that nullified an unpopular government transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had prompted rare mass protests.
Ali was the first person to announce, last November, that he would run against el-Sisi, who led the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood over four years ago.
Ahmed Shafiq, who finished second to Morsi in the 2012 election earlier announced his decision to not contest the election, as did Egyptian legislator Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, a nephew of Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president assassinated in 1981.
The election is scheduled for March 26.
