CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian politician emerged just ahead of a deadline on Monday as the sole challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a March election the incumbent appears set to win after other candidates withdrew citing repression.

Samir Abdel Azem, Egyptian lawyer of Ghad Party chairperson Mousa Mostafa Mousa, speaks on the phone between special forces soldiers after presenting presidential candidacy papers in Cairo, Egypt January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Mousa Mostafa Mousa leads the Ghad party, which had endorsed Sisi for a second term and even organized events to help nominate the former military commander as recently as last week.

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.

“This is all theater,” said a shopkeeper outside the Ghad party headquarters in downtown Cairo.

Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to oust President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist. It is the third election since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Several leading opposition figures have called for a boycott of the election, slated for March 26-28, saying repression had cleared the field of challengers and left Sisi’s top opponent in jail.

Even before campaigning has officially begun, the United Nations, rights groups and opposition figures criticized the run-up as compromised by arrests, intimidation of opponents and a nomination process stacked in favor of the incumbent.

At a news conference Mousa said the late decision to run came after all other candidates withdrew. He dismissed accusations that his candidacy was being used to present a false sense of competition.

“We are entering a fair and honorable competition in order to win,” said Mousa.

The electoral commission has said it will ensure the vote is fair and transparent.

Would-be candidates were required to register by 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Monday after clinching at least 20 nominations from parliament or 25,000 pledges from citizens across the country.

Mousa submitted his official paperwork just minutes before the final deadline. He said he had netted more than 47,000 pledges and the backing of 27 lawmakers.

Sisi’s campaign said on Monday it had received nomination pledges from 915,000 citizens. More than 500 of parliament’s 595 lawmakers had already pledged support for Sisi.

“We have a respectable program that we are offering to the Egyptian people and we are presenting ourselves just like any other candidate would,” the deputy head of the Ghad party, Mahmoud Mousa, said.

BOYCOTT CALLS

Earlier this week Hisham Genena, a former anti-corruption watchdog chief who had been working to elect former military chief of staff Sami Anan, was attacked and badly wounded outside his home.

Anan’s campaign was considered the strongest challenge to Sisi to date. It was abruptly halted after he was arrested last week and accused of running for office without military permission.

As late as Sunday it appeared likely that Sisi would have no electoral opponents, even as a group of prominent figures spanning the political spectrum announced the first major call to boycott the vote.

Members of Anan’s campaign, former Islamist presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abol Foutoh, and Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who halted his own presidential bid this month, called for the election to be suspended and said state policies were “removing any opportunity for the peaceful transfer of power”.

Analysts said Mousa’s snap nomination suggested the state was looking to avoid a single-candidate election.

Slideshow (3 Images)

“The Egyptian state does not want this to be described as a referendum internationally, which it would be if there is no challenger whatsoever to Sisi on the ballot,” said H.A. Hellyer, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“Even if that challenger is someone like Mousa Mostafa Mousa, who is on record as backing Sisi for a second term – the optics seem to be assessed as less problematic if he does run,” Hellyer said.

“It’s going to be an intense competition,” wrote one Twitter user with a screenshot of Mousa’s Facebook page that included a photo of Sisi’s face and the slogan “we support you as president of Egypt” written beneath it.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (FOX5 DC) – Police say the body found last week at a Fairfax County park has been officially identified as 16-year-old Jholie Moussa, according to an autopsy.

Moussa’s body was found last Friday morning at Woodlawn Neighborhood Park in Alexandria, which is less than one mile from her home. Police say her body was covered in leaves and debris. Her body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for official identification. Investigators said they were able to tentatively identify Moussa last Friday by the appearance of the body and by a tattoo.

Police said on Friday that this was the second time they had searched the park — with the first time coming within days after she was reported missing.

According to police, Moussa’s death is being investigated as a homicide.

“The autopsy results are pending,” Fairfax County police said in a statement. “At this time, we believe this is an isolated incident. We are continuing to investigate every lead.”

According to FOX 5’s Evan Lambert, a source has confirmed one of last phone calls to Moussa’s phone came from an area near the park where she was found dead. However, the GPS of the cellphone was not accurate enough to tell if the call came exactly from the park. Moussa’s family had previously said an unknown man borrowed a 12-year-old boy’s phone to make a call to Moussa’s phone on the day she went missing. It remains unclear if that man is a suspect in this case.

The 16-year-old girl, who was a tenth grade student at Mount Vernon High School, was last seen on Jan. 12 and reported missing the following day.

Moussa’s mother told FOX 5 her daughter left home at about 4:15 p.m. on Jan. 12 and she told her twin sister she was going to a party in Norfolk. Police said they looked into that tip, but it did not pan out.

Investigators had originally stated that Moussa did not appear to be an imminent danger since she left her home on her own accord. Until Friday, Moussa’s case was being treated as a juvenile runaway.

Detectives said they had spoken with about 20 people who had recent contact with Moussa. However, police said many of those 20 people who were friends with Moussa were not fully cooperating with investigators.

Fairfax County police said nearly two weeks ago that the FBI was assisting in the search for Moussa.

The park where Moussa’s body was found was reopened on Monday. A memorial of stuffed animals, candles and balloons sat at the entrance of the park.

A memorial service for Moussa is scheduled to be held Thursday at a church in Springfield</s>Several leading opposition figures called on Sunday for a boycott of Egypt’s March election, citing a wave of repression that has cleared the field of challengers to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A string of candidates have withdrawn from the election on concerns over intimidation and the arrest of Sisi’s leading challenger, leaving the former general the sole contender only a day before the January 29 nomination deadline.

Former military commander Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to the ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. The election will be the third since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

“We call on our great people to boycott these elections entirely, and to not recognise anything that results from it,” figures from across the political spectrum said in a joint statement.

Signatories included Abdel Moneim Abol Foutoh, an Islamist who garnered nearly a fifth of first round votes in a 2012 presidential race; Hesham Genena, a prominent former anti-corruption watchdog chief; and Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who halted his own presidential bid this month out of concern for the safety of his campaigners.

Representatives from the president’s office and the electoral commission were not immediately available for comment on Sunday. The president’s office has not commented previously on the election race.

Over the weekend, the Salafist party, endorsed Sisi’s candidature saying ‘the current president is in the best position to carry out these immense tasks’.

Two other potential candidates in the presidential race, legislator Mortada Mansour and Sayed El-Badawi of the old Liberal Party, withdrew their bids on Saturday. Badawi went ahead to endorse Sisi as a sole presidential candidate.

The electoral commission has said that it will ensure the vote is fair and transparent.

Sunday’s statement calling for a boycott said that the state’s policies were paving the way for extended limits to presidential terms and are “removing any opportunity for the peaceful transfer of power”.

In a separate statement Sadat called on party leaders and public figures to join him in a peaceful march to the presidential palace to demand a meeting with Sisi to discuss “democratic transition” and a repressive media environment, though he did not specify a date.

The call to boycott comes a day after Genena was attacked and badly wounded outside his home in what his lawyer described as an attempted kidnapping.

Genena had been working to elect former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan, whose campaign had emerged as the most formidable challenge to Sisi before Anan was arrested last week and accused of running for office without military permission.</s>Presidential candidate Moussa Mustafa Moussa of the Ghad, or Tomorrow, party, speaks during a press conference at his office in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 29, 2018. Moussa, a little-known Egyptian politician submitted his candidacy documents to the election commission Monday, emerging as a last-minute challenger to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi after a string of would-be challengers were arrested, forced out or quit the race. The prospect of a one-candidate election had proven embarrassing for the government. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)</s>Egyptian politician Mousa Mostafa Mousa said on Monday he would compete in presidential elections, hours before a nomination deadline was set to make President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the sole candidate after withdrawals and a boycott call.

Several leading opposition figures called for a boycott on Sunday, 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.

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.

Several opposition candidates who had earlier expressed interest in contesting for the presidency have since withdrawn their bids, citing intimidation from state agencies and an electoral process biased to favor the incumbent.

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.

Mousa, who studied architecture in France and heads the Egyptian Council for Arab Tribes, became the chairperson of El-Ghad Party in September, 2005, following fierce disputes with the party’s founder Ayman Nour who founded El-Ghad Party in 2004.

Would-be candidates were required to register by 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Monday after clinching at least 20 nominations from parliament or 25,000 pledges from citizens across the country.

The electoral commission has since closed the nominations and will announce the final list of presidential candidates on Wednesday as per the electoral schedule.

Voting in the 2018 presidential election in Egypt will commence on March 26, as announced by the National Electoral Authority (NEA) on January 8. Sixty million eligible voters will cast their ballots in the election between March 26 and 28 in Egypt, while expatriates will vote between March 16 and 18.</s>An Egyptian politician emerged just ahead of a deadline on Monday as the sole challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in an election in March the incumbent is set to win after other candidates withdrew citing repression.

Mousa Mostafa Mousa leads the Ghad party that has endorsed Sisi for a second term and even organised events to help nominate the former military commander as recently as last week.

Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after leading the army to oust President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist. It is the third election since protests in 2011 unseated long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Several leading opposition figures called on Sunday for an election boycott, blaming repression that has cleared the field of challengers and left Sisi's top opponent in jail.

At the time of Mousa's registration, his personal Facebook page included a cover photo with Sisi's face and "we support you as president of Egypt" written beneath it.

"We were supporting President Sisi before the decision to participate was taken," deputy head of the Ghad party Mahmoud Mousa told Reuters.

"We have a respectable programme that we are offering to the Egyptian people and we are presenting ourselves just like any other candidate would," he said.

Mousa said he registered his candidacy at the electoral commission after having collected the required number of nomination pledges, submitting his official paperwork just minutes before the final deadline.

Would-be candidates were required to register by 2 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Monday after clinching at least 20 nominations from parliament or 25,000 pledges from citizens across the country.

Mousa said he had netted 47,000 pledges and the backing of 27 lawmakers. The electoral commission said last week that Sisi had earned more than 1 million pledges. Over 500 of parliament's 595 lawmakers had already pledged support for Sisi.

The vote, slated for March 26-28, has come under heavy criticism from the United Nations, rights groups, and opposition figures who say its environment has been compromised by intimidation of opposition supporters, arrests, and a nomination process stacked in favour of the incumbent.

The electoral commission has said that it will ensure the vote is fair and transparent.

The last-minute bid comes days after Hisham Genena, a former anti-corruption watchdog chief who had been working to elect former military chief of staff Sami Anan, was attacked and badly wounded outside his home on Saturday.

Anan's campaign was abruptly halted after he was arrested last week and accused of running for office without military permission.

Following the attack, a group of prominent figures including members of Anan's campaign, former Islamist presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abol Foutoh, and Mohamed Anwar Sadat, who halted his own presidential bid out of concern for the safety of his campaigners, called for a boycott.

They said the state's policies were paving the way for extended limits to presidential terms and were "removing any opportunity for the peaceful transfer of power".</s>A coalition of eight Egyptian opposition parties and 150 pro-democracy public figures have urged voters to boycott the March presidential election, saying it amounts to “absurdity bordering on madness”.

A coalition of eight Egyptian opposition parties and 150 pro-democracy public figures have urged voters to boycott the March presidential election, saying it amounts to “absurdity bordering on madness”.

The incumbent, general-turned-president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is virtually certain to win a second, four-year term in the March 26-28 vote, sweeping aside a little-known candidate whose last-minute participation in the poll spared the government the embarrassment of a single-candidate election. The call for a boycott by the Civilian Democratic Movement came just days after five opposition figures, including a 2012 presidential candidate and two top campaign aides for presidential hopeful Sami Annan, called on voters to stay away from ballot boxes and on Egyptians not to recognise the vote’s outcome.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is virtually assured of a second term (AP) The ideology of the eight parties is rooted in the 2011 uprising that toppled the 29-year regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. They also supported the massive June 2013 protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, which paved the way for the military’s removal of him the following month. Now, they and others are sidelined by Mr el-Sissi, who has in the last four years focused on containing an insurgency by Islamic militants and reviving a battered economy, while overseeing one of the largest crackdowns against dissent in the country’s living memory.

The parties have limited support on the ground, in large part due to restrictions on their activities placed by security agencies. Their call for a boycott, however, carries symbolic significance and could invite protest votes by the many Egyptians victimised by the soaring prices caused by el-Sissi’s ambitious economic reforms, or encourage voters to stay home, an easy option given that the incumbent is certain to retain his job until 2022.

Presidential candidate Moussa Osman Moussa of the Ghad, or Tomorrow, party (AP) The parties said their young members came up with the slogan “stay home” for their boycott campaign. Speakers for the parties did not say what they intend to do to make their call for a boycott effective, but they are helped by the country’s track record of extremely low turnout for referendums or elections whose outcome is a foregone conclusion. Mr el-Sissi, for his part, has in recent weeks repeatedly urged Egypt’s estimated 60 million registered voters to cast their ballots, suggesting that he needs a high turnout to grant credibility to the poll.

After a string of would-be challengers were arrested, forced out or quit the race, the prospect of a one-candidate election had cast a cloud over the election. Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician and a staunch supporter of Mr el-Sissi, submitted his documents to be a would-be candidate on Monday, just minutes before the election commission’s deadline.</s>The head of a minor Egyptian political party on Monday registered at the last minute to challenge President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the March presidential election, the official MENA news agency reported.

Moussa Mustafa Moussa, of the al-Ghad Party, submitted the documents for his candidacy just minutes before the election authority's deadline for accepting applications, becoming al-Sisi's only rival.</s>CAIRO (AP) - A coalition of eight Egyptian opposition parties and some 150 pro-democracy public figures on Tuesday called for a boycott of the March presidential election, calling it an "absurdity" and comparing the government's handling of the vote to that of "old and crude dictatorships."

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is virtually certain to win a second, four-year term in the March 26-28 vote. A face-saving candidate's last-minute entry spared the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election but drew a torrent of criticism and mockery on social media.

The call for a boycott by the Civilian Democratic Movement came just days after five opposition figures, including a 2012 presidential candidate and two top campaign aides for now-arrested presidential hopeful Sami Annan, called on voters to stay away from ballot boxes and on Egyptians not to recognize the vote's outcome.

"It is not right for us to surrender to what has become an absurdity bordering on madness," Abdel-Geleel Mustafa, a veteran opposition figure, told a news conference at one of the parties' headquarters in Cairo.

Hamdeen Sabahy, who finished a distant second behind el-Sissi in the 2014 election, called on other pro-democracy groups to join the coalition. "Come and let us stand together. This is a moment when the people will make their say known and, God willing, the say of the people will prevail," he told the news conference.

The ideology of the eight parties is rooted in the 2011 uprising that ended the 29-year autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak. They also supported the massive June 2013 protests against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, which paved the way for the military's ouster of him the following month.

They and others have since been sidelined by el-Sissi, who has waged one of the most sweeping crackdowns on dissent in Egypt's modern history.

The parties have limited support on the ground, in large part due to restrictions on their activities placed by security agencies. Their call for a boycott, however, could dampen turnout.

The parties said their young members came up with the slogan "stay home" for their boycott campaign. Speakers for the parties did not say what they intend to do to make the boycott effective.

Egyptian elections typically attract low turnout, particularly when the outcome is a foregone conclusion. El-Sissi has repeatedly urged Egypt's estimated 60 million registered voters to cast ballots.

After a string of would-be challengers were arrested, forced out or quit the race, the prospect of a virtual referendum - not unlike those held by autocratic rulers in the past - had clouded the election.

Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little known politician and a staunch supporter of el-Sissi, submitted his documents Monday, just minutes before the election commission's deadline. Moussa is the leader of the Ghad, or Tomorrow, party, which does not have a single seat in parliament.

The national election authority said Tuesday that both el-Sissi and Moussa had met the requirements and declared them official candidates.

Moussa told a news conference Monday that he did not intend to be a "prop" in the election. But until a few days ago, he was a staunch supporter of el-Sissi's re-election.</s>ALEXANDRIA, VA. (WUSA9) - The family of 16-year-old Jholie Moussa is grieving.

So many of you are feeling this deeply, too.

There are Facebook groups dedicated to "Justice for Jholie."

RELATED: Fairfax teen was called from the park where her body was found, family says

You have questions, so we thought it would be a good idea to break down what we know for sure, and what we're still waiting to find out.

Jholie's twin sister Zhane says the two were in their Mount Vernon home. 

 Jholie was Snapchatting with a strange man. 

 Jholie said she'd be right back and walked out the front door. 

 She never comes home.

Friday, January 12, 5:24 pm 

 A 13-year-old boy on the basketball court at Woodlawn Park, not far from Jholie's home, tells our Peggy Fox he let a man use his cell phone. That man called Jholie.

The Washington Post reports Jholie texts her sister to say she's going to a party in Norfolk, Virginia.

 That night, Jholie's phone goes dead.

Jholie's family reports her as missing. 

 Police investigate. 

 They say she left on her own, and police say nothing told them she was in danger. 

 She's entered as a runaway in the National Crime Information Center database.

Police announce the FBI has joined the investigation. 

 Detectives say they spoke to about 20 people, many of whom are friends who they say aren't fully cooperating. Still, police say they have no evidence Jholie is in immediate danger.

Friday, January 26, 11 am

 Police find a body in the woods in the back of Woodlawn Park, almost entirely covered by leaves and brush. It turns out they believe it is Jholie's body. Detectives call it a homicide, and say they are "continuing to investigate every lead."

Police confirm what we already believed, that the body found in Woodlawn Park in Alexandria Friday is without a doubt the body of 16-year-old Jholie Moussa. That's from the autopsy.

Those are the facts we know.

What we don't know still is:

2. Will police offer a sketch of the man who borrowed that 13-year-old boy's cell phone?

4. Was Jholie killed in that park or somewhere else?

We will continue to dig for answers. There will be a public memorial service for Jholie Moussa this Thursday night at 6pm at the New Life Open Bible Church in Springfield, Virginia.
Minutes before the registration deadline, a second candidate, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, fulfills paperwork to participate in the 2018 presidential election. Leading opposition members called for a boycott, saying that a wave of repression has cleared the field of challengers to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.