Egyptian presidential hopeful Ahmed al-Tantawi on Monday said eight of his supporters had been arrested, bringing the total number of his backers in detention to 96. Egypt announced last month that it would be holding its presidential election on December 10-12, with the incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi formally announcing last week that he would seek a third term.
Tantawi said the authorities had accused the latest detainees of “falsifying” the endorsements he needs to collect in order to formally submit his bid for presidency. The interior ministry confirmed that eight supporters of a presidential candidate had been arrested for that reason.
Tantawi’s campaign has for weeks charged that it has faced harassment and arrests by the authorities, with members testifying publicly to having faced assaults or being prevented from registering their endorsements. Tantawi himself has said that the authorities have tapped his phone since September 2021. The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab attributed the attack to the Egyptian government “with high confidence”.
Each candidate must submit either 20 endorsements from MPs or 25,000 from citizens by October 15 in order to be eligible to run. Tantawi said he has collected 7,741 so far, while Sisi announced he has 424 endorsements from MPs and 1.135 million from citizens.
