The National Elections Commission said on Tuesday that it will hold a press conference next Monday to announce the timeline of the upcoming presidential election. Recently, several statements circulated by media outlets said that the election will take place in May 2018. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has not yet announced if he will run for another term or not. However, several campaigns held by some members of parliament and supporters of the sitting president haven been mobilising to collect signatures to demand him to run the upcoming presidential election in 2018 for a second term, to continue "building the country and facing the challenges." The campaigns have so far been free to mobilise and organise rallies, conferences, and visits to governmental and private institutions. The leaders of the "To Build It" campaign announced last week that the campaign collected 3,770,300 signatures from citizens, while the campaign will also open more headquarters in all governorates and launch a website to facilitate communication between the campaign and Egyptians in Egypt and abroad. On the other hand, prominent lawyer Khaled Ali and presidential hopeful has announced he will run. Ali's electoral programme mainly focuses on social reforms that centre on social justice, income equality, transparency, and press freedom. By the end of November, former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq returned to Egypt after four years of self-imposed exile in the UAE. He announced that he will run for the election, but withdrew his decision and declared that is yet to "consider" whether to run.
