Egyptian opposition calls for election boycott

By Rabi Ebu Zamil & Yusuf Mahmud

CAIRO

Egyptian opposition figures, including former presidential candidates, called for a boycott of the upcoming presidential election scheduled in March.

The 2012 presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and former racer for the 2018 election, Mohammed Anwar Sadat, made a joint statement Sunday, saying the election had "lost all credibility."

"We urge our glorious people to boycott the vote and not to recognize whatever the result it would produce," said the statement.

Hazem Hosny and Hisham Genena, top campaign aides of Gen. Sami Anan, former Egyptian army chief-of-staff and would-be presidential candidate, also signed the statement, according to the local media.

Egypt’s presidential elections are scheduled to take place March 26 to 28.

A former army general, al-Sisi came to power in 2014.

He played a leading role in Egypt’s 2013 military coup, which saw the ouster and imprisonment of the country’s first freely elected leader, Mohamed Morsi.