Abdel-Fattah Al-Al-Sisi may be being presented as the next president but the campaign team of his rival, Hamdeen Sabahi, insists they have a chance and will not give in without a fight. Al-Al-Sisi, and former presidential runner Sabahi, who ranked third in the 2012 race won by now jailed Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, have not yet been declared official candidates by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC). Both are still working on fulfilling a long list of requirements, not least collecting a minimum of 25,000 official proxies, with at least 1,000 from coming from 15 separate governorates. Deputy Minister of Justice for Public Notary Offices Omar Marwan, said that “by Tuesday evening as many as 30,000 endorsements had been given to both Al-Sisi and his main rival in the elections Hamdeen Sabahi.” Marwan said that Al-Sisi had the majority. Al-Sisi was also the first off the mark to undergo the full medical check-up now required of presidential candidates, turning up for the necessary examinations on Tuesday. Candidates must also submit a financial report, a certificate from police that they have no criminal record and confirmation that they, their parents and spouse hold only Egyptian nationality, that they possess a degree and have performed military service. Campaigns in support of Al-Sisi, whose pictures in army uniform have been posted all over the country, started long before he officially announced his decision to run on 26 March. One of the campaigns, ‘Complete Your Favour', claimed in January it had collected more than 20 million signatures in support of Al-Sisi. Another group, ‘Upon the People's Order', upped the ante by suggesting that, having identified 40 million supporters of the former defense minister there was no need to hold an election. Although Al-Sisi's official campaign insists it has no links to these groups, few would question that the man who served in top army posts under former President Hosni Mubarak and under Mohamed Morsi enjoys the support of all the major institutions of state. When Al-Sisi announced his decision to run last week state-owned television and radio, and private TV channels interrupted their broadcasts to air the speech he delivered in military uniform. Nothing could have been in greater contrast to Sabahi's own announcement: indeed the pro-Al-Sisi bias of state and private media is a major concern among Sabahi's campaign team according to Maasoum Marzouk, one of the candidate's closest advisers. “We will continue to monitor media coverage, particularly in state-owned television and newspapers,” Marzouk said. He added that Sabahi's team was in contact with state television and were pressing for their candidate to deliver a 20-minute speech similar to Al-Sisi's last week. Media coverage is only one of Sabahi's team's concerns. During a series of “human chains” organised by his supporters on Saturday in 37 locations those taking part were attacked the moment they raised Sabahi's picture and shouted slogans in his support. The most violent incident was in Alexandria where police had to fire rounds of tear gas to separate the two sides. A statement issued by Sabahi's campaign on Tuesday listed what they say are numerous violations seen during the process of registering the proxies required in support of candidates. They claimed some offices linked to the Ministry of Justice refused to register proxies in support of Sabahi. Others opened late or else did not possess the computers needed to verify the information presented by applicants. The most serious violation observed by Sabahi's campaign team was the use of government-owned buses to transport 500 people who then proceeded to register proxies in support of Al-Sisi. Marzouk discounts the significance of the number of proxies Al-Sisi was able to collect on the first day. “The people will have their final say in front of the ballot box. The ability to collect proxies cannot be taken as an indication of the outcome of the elections. We aim to collect only the 25,000 proxies required by law. We are not seeking to score points from what is only a procedural matter.” Marzouk admits that securing funding for the campaign is a major challenge. Many of Sabahi's financial backers in 2012 are no longer willing to donate in 2014. “Sabahi is the supporter of the poor and will build our campaign on small donations,” he says. No one expects the Al-Sisi camp to have problems raising funds. Hossam Mounes, a spokesman for the Popular Trend, is more worried about “attempts to tarnish Sabahi's image through an organised campaign of distortion, spreading false rumours and lies about him”. Television channels known to support Al-Sisi have, alongside newspapers and social media, broadcast unsubstantiated rumours claiming Sabahi received financial support from, among others, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. Sabahi, who presents himself as the candidate of the 25 January Revolution and as a staunch opponent of Morsi and the Brotherhood, has been attacked by his critics for accepting an alliance with the Brotherhood in the parliamentary elections held in late 2011. Sabahi's opponents also point to the fact that, while his profession is listed as journalist he is virtually unknown as a writer and has never achieved any success in the field. As a staunch opponent of Mubarak, say Sabahi's supporters, he was never likely to be given much access to print media, and as an MP had other business to deal with. “What bothers Sabahi's opponents is that he has a clean record, both financially and politically,” says Mounes. “That is why they keep coming up with these unsubstantiated stories. But people know the truth, they know who Hamdeen Sabahi is.”
