And Then There Was One: Last Challenger to Egypt’s Sisi Drops Out
Mr. Ali, the lawyer, became a thorn in Mr. Sisi’s side last year after he won a court challenge
that nullified Mr. Sisi’s decision to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Ali quit one day after Sami Anan, a former army chief who had declared his candidacy, was arrested by the military on charges of forgery
and "incitement." On Wednesday Mr. Anan’s son, Samir, said the family had no news of his whereabouts.
Another potential candidate, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, the nephew of former President Anwar Sadat, said the pressure was so bad
that officials blocked him from hiring a hall in a five-star hotel for his news conferences.
The challenger, the human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, said a fair contest was no longer possible after a concerted government effort to derail his campaign by arresting his supporters
and frustrating his efforts to register as a candidate.
24, 2018
The last main challenger dropped out of Egypt’s presidential election on Wednesday, effectively clearing the field for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to run virtually unopposed in a vote
that is shaping up to be a referendum on his military-backed rule.
Ahmed Shafik, a former prime minister who came in a close second in the 2012 election, was forced to return from exile in December,
only to disappear into a Cairo hotel where he was held by security officials who pressed him to quit, according to his lawyer.
