Al-Wafd Party announced, at a Sunday press conference, that it will not field a candidate for the upcoming presidential election. This came after members of the party's higher committee voted against nominating the head of Al-Wafd, El-Sayed El-Badawi, through secret ballot voting during a closed session. Also, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has approved new requests from non-governmental organisations to monitor the election, bringing the total number of NGO monitors to 44 local and four international ones. The NEC had previously approved requests from 28 local organisations and four international ones out of a total 67 organisations that sent requests. The deadline to apply as a candidate for the election is Monday 29 January. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is seeking a second term, as he submitted the required endorsements and passed a mandatory medical test. Endorsements for potential candidates for the upcoming elections reached almost 1.35 million, spokesperson of the NEC Mahmoud El-Sherif said in a statement. The commission announced that the 2018 presidential election would begin abroad on 16 March and on 26 March within Egypt. The election abroad will take place from 16-18 March, and will continue inside Egypt from 26-28 March. The result of the first round will be announced on 2 April. A second round could take place if no candidate secures more than 50% of the votes. In case a runoff is needed, an election would take place outside Egypt from 19-21 April, while it would take place from 24-26 April inside Egypt. The NEC will announce the final list of candidates in state-run newspapers by the end of January.
