Leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi to challenge Sisi in Egypt election

Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi officially submitted his bid Saturday to run for Egypt's presidency, making him the second candidate for next month's election alongside former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who is widely expected to win.

The election is due to take place on May 26-27.

Sabahi, who heads a political alliance called the Popular Current, created after the 2012 presidential elections, was a member of parliament during ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak's years in office and came third in the election won by Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2012.

Sabahi submitted the required documents to the presidential election committee after gathering 31,100 signatures. The required number is 25,000.

A third candidate, controversial figure Mortada Mansour, announced Saturday that he would not run in the upcoming elections, after having declared his candidacy less than a week ago, Egyptian media reported.

Mortada said he had received a sign from God that Sisi would win the race, Ahram online said Saturday.

Mortada, a lawyer with a resume full of controversial lawsuits and public statements, also hosted his own television program on Egyptian TV where he slammed many figures of the January 25 revolution.

Sisi, who led the army overthrow of Morsi last July after mass protests against his rule, is widely expected to win the election as he is viewed by many in the country as the savior of the people who can bring stability to Egypt. Sisi submitted his documents last week after gathering at least 200,000 endorsements.

But Sisi's seemingly imminent rise to power has also ignited fears that Egypt will return to the autocratic hands of a military strongman who has overseen a ruthless crackdown on countrywide protests by Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Morsi.

The parallels between Sisi and Mubarak are striking — and to some disturbing: Mubarak, like Sisi, rose to power through the ranks of the military and was long propped up by Egypt’s security apparatus. Mubarak, too, quashed the Brotherhood into submission, though he failed to wipe it out. Still, Sisi remains popular among many in the country struggling to move beyond political turmoil and recurring unrest in the streets.

Though Sabahi's chances of winning appear slim, Egypt's liberal Constitution Party, one of Egypt's main liberal parties, announced that it will back Sabahi earlier this week, London-based, pan-Arab news agency Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday. The Constitution Party and Karama Party, which Sabahi co-founded, are the only two parties to have announced backing for Sabahi so far.

Egypt’s Tamarod Movement, the youth movement who organized protests that led to the ouster of Morsi, has officially endorsed Sisi, Asharq al-Awsat said, but some members of the group have split off to support Sabahi.

Al Jazeera and Reuters