Over 3 million Egyptians support Sisi's campaign to run for second term

Egypt’s so-called “Alashan Tbneeha” (To Build It) campaign announced today that it had collected over three million signatures from citizens calling on the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to run for a second presidential term.

“Alashan Tbneeha” was launched on 25 September with the aim to collect as many signatures as possible to persuade the president to run for the upcoming elections in 2018. It focuses on highlighting the achievements of Sisi through the first term of his presidency. The campaign supporters include 200 MPs.

Local media quoted Ahmed Al-Khateeb, one of the campaign founders, at a press conference held in Cairo as saying that the campaign received 3,177,300 signatures on Saturday.

“The campaign is still accepting new signatures,” Al-Khateeb added without providing more details about final count announcement date.“189,065 uncompleted forms were excluded,” he added.

“The numbers reflect the popularity of President Sisi,” the political sciences professor stressed.

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During the conference, the campaign founders revealed that it has witnessed a great interaction across Egypt’s 27 governorates, including the participation of some 220 MPs.

The founders also pointed that the campaign will soon launch a website to facilitate the participation of the Egyptians living abroad.

The campaign has received support from the local and official media in Egypt amid negligence to another rival campaign that was launched by the former MP, Mohamed Anwar Esmat El-Sadat.

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Al-Sadat, the son of the brother of the assassinated former president Anwar Al-Sadat, said in a statement that he was “unable to run a similar campaign after government and security restrictions faced by members of his campaign.”

Until now, Sisi is yet to formally announce his candidacy for the 2018 presidential election. According to the Egyptian constitution, he is entitled to run for a second term.

In 2014, a campaign named “Kamel Gemeelak” was launched ahead the presidential elections at the time, in which Sisi received 23 million votes, while his only rival, Hamdeen Sabahi, received 757,511 votes.