Egyptians will vote on May 26 and 27 in the first round of a presidential election, the organizing body said on Sunday, a contest former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win easily, Reuters reported.
Sisi, who deposed President Mohamed Mursi last July, has been riding on a wave of popular backing from supporters who see him as the man who can save Egypt from crisis. But the Islamist opposition views him as the mastermind of a coup.
Sisi was seen as the most influential figure in an interim administration that has been cracking down hard on Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents in the last nine months. The Brotherhood, Egypt's best organized political party until last year, has been banned and driven underground.
The vote will go to a second round in June if the first-placed candidate does not by a wide enough margin. The organizing committee did not say what this margin was during a televised news conference.
Sisi is widely expected to win comfortably. He enjoys solid support from privately- and state-run media.
So far, the only other candidate for the presidency is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 election won by Mursi.
Sisi stepped down as defense minister and army chief in order to announce his candidacy last Wednesday.
Candidates may conduct their election campaigns between May 3 and May 23, the spokesman for the committee in charge of organizing the elections said in a televised news conference.