Following her party’s decision to forbid her from running for president, Gameela Ismail, the head of the Al-Dostour (Constitution) party, declared on Wednesday that she was withdrawing her candidacy for the Egyptian presidential elections.
Ismail said in a statement that her decision to resign was following the party’s general assembly, which decided in a meeting on Tuesday to forbid her from running in the elections scheduled for December.
Al Ahram Online website reported that she claimed that she was subject to the party’s guidelines regarding organizational structure.
Despite wishing to be the first woman to run for president, the Al-Dostour party’s chairperson stated she complied with the party’s choice.
She stated: I could have run for elections as an independent candidate, but I chose to run as head of Al-Dostour to develop the party’s political performance,” the statement quoted Ismail as saying.
Without providing any further details, she also claimed that her supporters were the target of infractions.
“Since the announcement of the election timetable, we have witnessed violations in all governorates and not just against candidate supporters,” she said.
Notably, three prospective candidates have already sent in their paperwork to the election committee. They are Farid Zahran, leader of the Social Democratic Party in opposition, Abdel-Sanad Yamama, leader of the Wafd party, Egypt’s oldest liberal party, and Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the country’s current president whose term expires in April.
On October 16, once incomplete candidacy forms have been disqualified, a preliminary list of candidates will be made public. After that, Egypt will hold elections from December 10 to 12. On December 1-3, Egyptians living abroad will cast their ballots. If there is no need for a run-off, the final outcome will be declared on December 18.
The upcoming elections will be the fourth presidential contest after the 25 January 2011 uprising, whereas 2018 saw the most recent presidential elections.
