It has been two days since the National Elections Authority officially launched election season, setting off a sprint toward the December 10–12 poll date.

Egypt will hold a presidential election at the end of the year, with results expected by mid-December, or January in the event of a run-off vote.

At the end of last week, several prospective opposition candidates took the plunge into the presidential election pool after months of behind-the-scenes deliberations around what running for Egypt’s highest political office in the current political climate would mean.

The Egyptian presidential elections will be held outside Egypt on December 1-3 and inside Egypt on December 10-12, the head of the National Elections Authority Walid Hamza announced during the National Elections Authority’s press conference on Monday.

An opposition Egyptian presidential candidate was targeted with spyware a number of times in recent months, with Egyptian authorities likely behind the hacking attempts, security researchers say.

Karim Assaad, a 30-year-old Egyptian journalist, stayed up late on August 18 to finish some work so he could enjoy the rest of the weekend with his wife and 2-year-old son. Before dawn’s light filled the skies in Cairo, Assaad heard aggressive knocks on their door. “We thought the building …

Egypt’s main liberal opposition movement said Sunday it would not nominate a presidential candidate in the election expected next year, after its frontrunner was sentenced to six months in prison.

At a time when Egypt has been undergoing the most challenging economic crisis in modern history and the worst human rights record witnessed in decades, the country’s opposition groups have yet to agree on an alternative candidate to compete against incumbent president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for the soon-to-come elections.

Dissent in Egypt has long been quashed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who did not hesitate to unleash a bloodbath after his 2013 military coup, conduct mass arrests, and build mega prison complexes.

Egypt’s clampdown on political dissent increasingly includes family members of activists living abroad. The government has also admitted to leveraging the release of individual political prisoners for financial aid.