Egypt is holding presidential elections over three days from December 10 to 12, and it is expected that the current president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will easily win a third term in elections overshadowed by the war in Gaza. The most prominent potential opposition candidates withdrew in October after complaining about the arrest of dozens of their supporters and that government-affiliated officials and lawbreakers hindered their campaigns. The National Election Authority in Egypt stated that such claims are unfounded. Three others are running to compete against El-Sisi, all of whom are politicians without significant weight. Below are details about the candidates:
* **Abdel Fattah El-Sisi**
El-Sisi (68 years old) is a former army leader who led the ousting of elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following protests against Morsi's rule. He served as Minister of Defense and Military Production from 2012 to 2013 and was Director of Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance from 2010 to 2012. He resigned from the armed forces in 2014 to run for president. He was announced the winner with 97 percent of the votes, becoming Egypt's eighth president, and secured a second term four years later with the same winning margin. El-Sisi is running for a third term following constitutional amendments made in 2019 that also extended the presidential term from four to six years.
* **Fouad Zahra**
Veteran politician and leftist opposition figure Fouad Zahra (66 years old) heads the Egyptian Democratic Social Party, established after the January 25, 2011 uprising. The party embraces a "social democratic" ideology based on principles such as social justice, citizenship, security, and the rule of law. Zahra has a long history of founding political movements and coalitions, including the student movement in the 1970s, the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kefaya) which protested the rule of former President Hosni Mubarak since 2004, and the Democratic Civil Movement formed in 2017 to support democracy and social justice, which includes several civil parties. Zahra states that he prioritizes "limiting state ownership and managing state-owned projects related to security or indirectly supporting the private sector," such as the Suez Canal, the Iron and Steel Company, and electricity and water treatment companies.
* **Abd Al-Sand Yamama**
Abd Al-Sand Yamama (71 years old), a lawyer and professor of international law, is running as a candidate for the Wafd Party, Egypt's oldest liberal party. Yamama stated that he would like to impose a presidential term limit of two terms, each lasting four years. He supports constitutional amendments focusing on rights and freedoms and economic reforms that he claims will allow for the establishment of a "free economy."
* **Hazem Omar**
Hazem Omar, the former head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Egyptian Senate and president of the Republican People's Party, is the youngest candidate in the race at 59 years old. The businessman turned politician is campaigning under the slogan "We can... together we will change," stating that he intends to prioritize reforming the healthcare and education sectors, believing that these are critical concerns for the general Egyptian population. He said, "The people's priorities are our priorities." He also called for a focus on local economic growth, agriculture, energy, and trade at a time when the economy is suffering from a prolonged shortage of foreign currency and near-record inflation.
