CAIRO — Khaled Ali announced at a Nov. 6 press conference at the headquarters of Egypt’s Dostour Party his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for March 2018, saying he has started forming his campaign team.

Ali is a human rights lawyer and politician, a member of the Coalition of Socialist Forces and the director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights. He is the co-founder of the Front for the Defense of Egyptian Protesters, which has been providing legal support to peaceful protesters since April 2008.

Ali ran in the 2012 presidential elections, one day after his 40th birthday, thus becoming the youngest ever candidate to run as soon as he reached the minimum age of candidacy. However, he came in seventh place, getting just 0.5% of the vote.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has hinted that he intends to run for a second term. In an interview with CNBC on Nov. 7, he said he would not seek a third term. “I am in favor of preserving two four-year terms and not to change it. … I am saying that we have a new constitution now and we are working on making new laws to abide by it in the country of Egypt. I am not in favor of any amendments to be made to the constitution in this period.”