Leftist figure to run for Egypt pres

Egyptian leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi has officially registered his candidacy to run for president in the North African country’s forthcoming presidential election.

According to Press TV, on Saturday, Sabahi formally submitted the required documents to Egypt’s electoral commission after he managed to gather more than 31,000 signatures from Egyptian citizens endorsing his candidacy.

Sabahi is the second candidate to run in next month’s presidential election alongside former army chief and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The leading leftist figure is the head of Egypt’s Popular Current movement. The politician finished third in the 2012 presidential poll which was won by ousted President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood party.

Sisi, who led the military deposal of Egypt’s first democratically-elected president in July 2013, is widely expected to win the presidential vote scheduled to be held on May 26-27.

Egypt’s ex-army chief submitted his documents on April 12 after gathering 200,000 signatures, well above the required 25,000.