Khaled Ali’s campaign hints at a possible boycott of elections due to “stringent conditions”: Hala Fouda, manager of top human rights lawyer Khaled Ali’s 2018 presidential campaign, suggested that the campaign is considering boycotting the elections due to what she says is the short deadline for applying and meeting the conditions to run set out by the National Elections Committee (NEC). Under these terms, potential candidates must gather a petition of support with some 25,000 signatures and endorsements from 20 members of parliament to be eligible to run, Fouda tells Al Shorouk. She also notes that the NEC did not take into account Ali’s demands that the body ensure the press be allowed to freely cover the election, that it allow any citizen to run, and that it amend the National Elections Act. An Ali campaign would be untenable without those reforms, she said.

What to watch for: Ali, who hasn’t officially declared his candidacy under the regulations set out by the NEC announced on Monday, will announce his next move at a press conference on Monday. The activist is waiting on an appeal in March of his conviction of a “lewd hand gesture in public” which may see him declared ineligible to run.