Campaigning for Egypt’s presidential election next month officially began on Monday, with Islamists and liberal secularists expected to dominate the hustings. Official campaigning, during which candidates can display their posters in public and broadcast their messages on television, will last until May 21, 48 hours before polls open for the first round of voting, on May 23 and 24. A second round of the election to choose a successor to former president Hosni Mubarak is expected to take place on June 16 and 17. Egypt’s ruling military, which took charge after Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February last year, has promised that the vote will be free and has pledged to hand power to the winner by the end of June. Despite officially beginning on Monday, campaigning has actually been in full swing for weeks, with streets already strewn with banners and candidates travelling across governorates from Upper Egypt to the Nile Delta.
Egypt presidential campaign begins in earnest
