An Egyptian politician emerged just ahead of a deadline on Monday as the sole challenger to the incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a March election.
Several leading opposition figures called on Sunday for a boycott of the presidential election, citing a wave of repression that has cleared the field of challengers to Sisi and left his top opponent in jail.
The sole competitor, Mousa Mostafa Mousa leads the Ghad party which had endorsed Sisi for a second term and even organised events to help nominate the former military commander as recently as last week, says a Reuters report.
Mousa said he would mount a full challenge to Sisi, though opposition activists, journalists, and analysts took to Twitter to dismiss him as a dummy candidate, standing only to give the impression of a full democratic contest.
Former military commander Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to oust Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
He is expected to easily win the vote, the third since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Would-be candidates were required to register by 2 pm (1200 GMT) on Monday after clinching at least 20 nominations from parliament or 25,000 pledges from citizens across the country.
