In a press conference held at the headquarters of the Socialist Popular Alliance (SPA) Saturday, the party officially announced it is backing the presidential bid of Nasserist Hamdeen Sabahi. "We're voting for Sabahi because of his credible struggle and we know that he will be hit by a vigorous smear campaign that aims at shaking the confidence of his followers," said party head Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr. Shukr further added that voting for Sabahi in the upcoming elections is considered "a victory for democratic development, social justice and popular will. He added that if the elections were turned into a referendum on only one candidate, then it would have meant the establishment of a "totalitarian state." "We want a fair, transparent, credible elections," he added. Meanwhile, Sabahi who garnered the support of the Constitution Party last week, expressed his gratitude for the SPA's decision, describing it as a party that "came from the womb of the January 25 Revolution." "I am running in the presidential race to take the revolution to the presidential palace," said Sabahi urging political forces "that describe themselves as democratic and civil to follow the steps of the Constitution Party and the SPA." On Friday, the secretary-general of the SPA told Ahram Online that the decision to back Sabahi was voted for by 90 percent of party members. The presidential poll, the first to be held after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, is scheduled to take place 26-27 May. Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi are the only candidates. Sabahi's campaign said it gathered 31,000 notarised recommendation forms across 17 governorates — 6,000 more than the 25,000 necessary to register as a candidate. El-Sisi's campaign claimed to have collected 400,000 recommendations. They submitted 200,000 forms from 27 governorates with the Presidential Election Committee (PEC). The PEC will announce a final list of candidates on 2 May and give the green light for election campaigns to run between 3 and 23 May. Source: Ahram Online
