Egyptians will head to the polls on March 26-28 in the first round of a presidential election, National Elections Authority chief Lasheen Ibrahim said Monday.

A second round will be held on April 24-26 if required, he told a news conference in Cairo.

Ibrahim said the commission would accept applications from presidential hopefuls between January 20 and 29.

“The provisional list of candidates and the numbers of their supporters will be published” in state-run newspapers Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar on January 31, he said.

Once appeals by rejected candidates are settled, “the final list of candidate names and their symbols will be announced and published in the official gazette and Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar newspapers” on February 24, he said.

That will mark the official start of the campaign, which will run until March 23, Ibrahim said, with final results to be announced on May 1.

Egyptians living abroad are to cast their votes on March 16-18, he added, with second round ballots on April 19-21 if necessary.

Incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is widely expected to stand for re-election and win in the first round.

Sisi, a former army chief, was elected president in 2014, a year after leading the military to oust his predecessor Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against the Islamist’s year-long rule.

Former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq said Sunday that he would not be a candidate in the poll, reversing a previous pledge to stand.