Egypt’s High Administrative Court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit filed earlier this month by lawyer Tarek Al-Awadi asking the National Elections Authority (NEA) to reject Ghad Party Chairperson Moussa Mostafa Moussa’s candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections.
The court ruled that El-Awadi is not eligible to file such a lawsuit. Al-Awadi’s suit called for Moussa to be disqualified from the 2018 presidential race, charging that the candidate does not hold a university degree, which is a basic requirement for candidacy in the elections.
Moussa dismissed Al-Awadi's accusation, affirming that he fulfilled all conditions and has presented to the NEA all documents required to run the presidential elections.
Two candidates have been approved as applicants by the NEA to run in Egypt's upcoming elections: incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Ghad Party head Moussa Mostafa Moussa.
The NEA will announce the names of final candidates on 24 February. In the past weeks, several well-known public figures who had been considering a run ended their bids for various reasons.
President El-Sisi, whose current term will end in June, won the 2014 presidential elections in a two-man race with nearly 97 percent of the vote over leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.
El-Sayed Gamal El-Din
