President Abdel Fattah El Sisi filed on Wednesday his papers to seek a second term, Al Masry Al Youm reported. El Sisi’s campaign also announced it had appointed Mohamed Bahaa Abu Shoka as campaign spokesperson and Mahmoud Karem as campaign manager.

Activist and lawyer Khaled Ali officially withdrew from the presidential race on Thursday, Al Mal reported. Speaking at a late-day press conference, Ali cited political intimidation and bureaucratic obstacles as playing in his decision to pull out. The lawyer also said that the election timeline did not grant enough time for hopefuls to collect endorsements from 25,000 citizens or 20 MPs as required, let alone launch an effective campaign. Ali had been struggling to scrape together the endorsements, while over 500 MPs had signed forms endorsing El Sisi.

Ali’s withdrawal leaves President Abdel Fattah El Sisi as the sole contender for the top job, after former military chief of staff Sami Anan was detained last week for allegedly breaching military law by entering the race.

The deadline for challengers to file their paperwork is tomorrow. The National Elections Commission said yesterday it will not extend tomorrow’s 14:00 deadline, Al Shorouk reports.

The chairman of the once-mainstream El Wafd Party, El Sayed El Badawy, sought to announce his intention to run on Friday, but the party’s higher commission refused to field him as the party’s official candidate, Reuters Arabic reports. An “overwhelming majority” of the commission voted against supporting El Badawy’s bid since it would not present any real competition to El Sisi’s run, and his nomination would only be a symbolic gesture to ensure the elections are pluralistic, El Wafd’s media advisor, Yasser Hassan, tells the newswire.

Mortada Mansour announced yesterday his withdrawal from the race, saying at a press conference that he would release “further details” on his decision and which candidate he will support, according to a statement.

Surprise last-minute entries? Four candidates other than El Sisi are in the process of undergoing the medical check-ups required to filing their nomination papers with the National Elections Commission, a Health Ministry official said, according to Youm7. The four hopefuls are all scheduled to finish their check-ups today, according to the official.

Meanwhile, the Islamist Al Nour Party is expected to hold a press conference at noon today to announce the party’s official position on the elections, Ahram Gate reports.

State Information Service critical of international coverage: The State Information Service issued scathing criticism (pdf) of international coverage of the arrest of would-be candidate and former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan, being particularly critical of the use of the word “detention,” which it says had been outlawed in the Egyptian constitution, and for drawing connections to the aborted campaign of Ahmed Shafik.

Regulator sends message to domestic media: The Head of the National Press Authority, meanwhile, will be out today with an interview warning domestic media to play ball in its election coverage. Karam Gabr spoke with state-owned daily Al-Ahram “about objectivity and transparency in covering Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections” and said the authority “has prepared guidelines for media outlets to follow when covering the elections” including an admonition to “not rely on anonymous sources, whose information can be difficult to verify,” Ahram Online reports.