The presidential elections continued to be the most popular topic of discussion on the airwaves last night.

Hona Al Asema’s Lamees Al Hadidi spoke to presidential candidate Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who told the host that he had actually decided to run a while back, but reconsidered his decision when former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik was still a contender, since he felt like “it wouldn’t look right” to compete with Shafik and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. He then postponed his announcement that he wouldn’t run when Shafik withdrew because he had yet to collect the required citizen or MP endorsements (watch, runtime: 3:16).

Moussa’s lawyer, Samir Elewa, phoned in to reassure Lamees that Moussa has a university degree — as is legally required of a presidential candidate — in architecture from a French university. He then acted as Moussa’s verbal LinkedIn profile, telling Lamees that he is a businessman with several major companies under his belt (watch, runtime: 3:36).

In non-election coverage, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat gave Lamees the rundown on new railway ticket prices, which are coming into effect. Tickets for short-distance trains that travel between Cairo’s suburbs rise 80%, which could come to EGP 2-3. VIP train tickets with be hiked 25%, while those for the French and Spanish air-conditioned trains will see a 40% jump (watch, runtime: 20:50).

In sharp about-face, Kol Youm’s Amr Adib tried to convince his viewers that a single-candidate election would be nothing of which to be ashamed, after calling a one-candidate election a “political disaster” for the better part of a few months now, pointing to the Dostour Party’s 2017 internal elections, which saw party head Khaled Dawood winning in an uncontested run (watch, runtime: 5:50).

Journalist Abdel Halim Kandil told Adib that El Sisi was guaranteed to win regardless how many candidates ran against him, saying the president still enjoys wide popularity despite his approval ratings dipping on the back of the economic reform program (watch, runtime: 1:30).

Adib also discussed El Sisi’s meeting with Sudan and Ethiopia’s leaders yesterday on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying it offered a ray of hope that the gridlock will be resolved (we have details on the meeting in Speed Round, below) (watch, runtime: 7:38).

Al Hayah Al Youm’s Tamer Amin echoed Adib’s sentiments, concluding that the construction of the dam is not an act of hostility from Ethiopia and that any kinks between the three countries on the matter will soon be ironed out (watch, runtime: 7:41).

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid also said El Sisi’s statements following the meeting indicate that the three countries are determined to work together in resolving the issue and cooperating in other areas (watch, runtime: 3:25).

Direct Moscow-Cairo flights to resume next week? Meanwhile on Masaa DMC, Atef Aglan, a member of the government committee working to get Russian flights back into the air to Egypt, told host Eman El Hosary that direct flights between Moscow and Cairo will resume on 6 February. (Last we heard from the Ruskies, Aeroflot will not be operating any flights between the two capitals until late February). Aglan also said that flights to Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada could see a comeback in April, once Russia’s presidential elections are through. Once Russian tourists return to Egypt, they could generate between USD 4 and 5 bn in tourism revenues for the country, Aglan said (watch, runtime: 7:32). Based on statements from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, which we note in the speed round, we will take Aglan’s comments with a grain of salt.