Campaigning for Egypt's presidential vote underway
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Campaigning is now underway in Egypt's presidential elections, a two-candidate vote that's virtually certain to be won by the incumbent, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
The campaigning began Saturday and ends March 23.
El-Sissi is challenged by an obscure politician who entered the race in the eleventh hour to save the president and his government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election. A string of potentially serious challengers have been arrested or intimidated out of the race.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hundreds of billboard advertisements in support of the incumbent have over the weekend have been mounted alongside existing ones on the streets of Cairo, almost all bearing the image of a smiling el-Sissi, with slogans focusing on the economy and security.
Campaign banners for the challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, who is an ardent el-Sissi supporter, are conspicuously absent.