CAIRO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's former army chief of staff Sami Anan announced early Saturday morning his bid to run in the 2018 presidential election scheduled for March.
"I announce today that I made up my mind to submit my candidacy papers for the post of president," Anan said in a video statement posted on his official Facebook page.
Anan's announcement came a few hours after current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi officially announced he would be running for re-election.
Sisi is supported by most media outlets as well as state institutions, including the parliament, most of whose 596 members officially recommended him for a second four-year term.
Anan blamed the country's ongoing problems on "wrong policies," calling on all institutions to be neutral and not to take sides.
He said he already formed a civilian presidential team, including Hisham Genina, a former chief of the country's top anti-corruption auditing authority who was sacked by Sisi in 2016, and Hazem Hosny, a political science professor critical of the policies of the current administration.
Egypt is going to hold its 2018 presidential race late March. After a 10-day candidate registration period starting on Saturday, the candidates will kick off their campaign on Feb. 24. The result of the first round is set to be announced on April 2, according to the country's National Election Authority.
A pro-Sisi non-official campaign called "So That You Can Build It (Egypt)" said last December that it collected over 12 million signatures from Egyptians, more than 11 percent of the population, supporting Sisi to run for a second term.
The Egyptian constitution limits the president's number of terms to two. Sisi said earlier he would not seek to change it.
Sisi took office in mid-2014, a year after he led the ouster of his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against Morsi's one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Anan is considered a strong competitor against Sisi in the race.
Egyptian rights and opposition lawyer Khaled Ali announced last November his intention to join the presidential race. But it is possible that Ali could be disqualified as he had received a suspended three-month jail term earlier in September over an obscene hand gesture he reportedly made after winning a court order challenging the government.
Meanwhile, former air force commander and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, who fled Egypt after narrowly losing to Morsi in the 2012 elections, announced from the United Arab Emirates his intention to run for president.
However, Shafiq came back to Egypt last December and announced his withdrawal from the presidential race earlier this month.
