With Little Choice, Egyptians Head To The Polls In Presidential Election

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is set to coast to a sweeping victory in Egypt's third presidential elections since the 2011 revolution. For many Egyptians going to the polls starting Monday, it will be a vote of support for Sisi's hard-line rule five years after he led a military coup toppling the country's first democratically elected leader.

But he is also helped by the lack of credible candidates in the three-day election. In fact, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, the only rival, is quite clear about what drove him to make a last-minute bid for president.

"The most important thing is to try to avoid that the election becomes a referendum," Moussa tells NPR at his campaign headquarters in downtown Cairo. "That would be a catastrophic situation