The Egyptian politician Mousa Mostafa Mousa has said he will stand in the presidential elections, hours before a nomination deadline was set to make President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi the sole candidate after withdrawals and a boycott call.

Several leading opposition figures had called on Sunday for a boycott of the March election, citing a wave of repression that has cleared the field of challengers to Sisi and left his top opponent in jail. Sisi, a former military commander, was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to oust the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. He is expected to easily win the vote, the third since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.Mousa, who leads the Ghad party, told Reuters he was at the electoral commission registering his candidacy after having collected the required number of nomination pledges.(theguardian)…[+]