CAIRO — As would-be challengers to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi slip off the campaign trail — or are pushed — people are wondering what the future holds for the country's political parties. Human rights lawyer Khaled Ali's withdrawal Jan. 24 from Egypt's presidential race — a day after candidate Gen. Sami Anan was arrested — raised questions about what role parties might play in the upcoming elections.

Also, on Jan. 26, Wafd Party leader El-Sayyid el-Badawi announced he was running for president, but the party’s supreme body withdrew his candidacy the next day and endorsed Sisi in the elections, scheduled for late March. In December, a military court sentenced Col. Ahmed Qonsowa to six years in prison. He had been arrested soon after he announced he would run.

More than a half-dozen proposed candidates have come and gone, leaving only one — a staunch Sisi supporter — to "challenge" him.

Several Egyptian parties, mainly Wafd, the Free Egyptians Party, the Nour Party and the National Progressive Unionist Party, have all endorsed Sisi for a second four-year term and refused to nominate anyone to run against him. These parties faced stiff criticism in the media. Finally, El-Ghad Party leader Moussa Moustafa Moussa submitted his candidacy at the last minute Jan. 29 before the application deadline.