EGYPT is gearing for presidential elections to be held on May 26 and 27. Saturday marked the official start of campaigning when massive posters of the two candidates, former military chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sissi and veteran Nasserist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, were seen gracing highways and major roads.

Most analysts are convinced that Sabahi is fighting windmills, evidenced by recent Baseera and Ibn Khaldoun polls predicting that El-Sissi is likely to garner between 72 – 80 percent of the votes as opposed to just one or two percent of respondents championing his competitor. Another indicator is that whereas El-Sissi received eight times more public endorsements mandated to validate his bid within days, his rival was unable to submit his until the eleventh hour.

Sabahi is regularly seen laying out his strategies on local channels but he doesn’t possess a tenth of El-Sissi’s natural charisma. On Sunday, El-Sissi emerged from the shadows during a media question time and clearly charmed even the most hard hitting political show hosts. Controlled and smiling throughout, his passion bubbled to the surface when he spoke of getting the poorest out of slums and children off the streets.

Whereas “the quiet man” has chosen to run a low key campaign, refusing to participate in debates and unwilling to appear at campaign rallies, his leftwing rival is fighting tooth and nail for the job that escaped him in the first round of the 2012 ballot in which he came third.

In truth, Sabahi may have a card or two up his sleeve. He’s traveling around the country holding press conferences. Whether Sabahi can succeed in galvanizing this potentially formidable bloc in his favor is yet to be seen.

Sabahi’s implied criticism of the judiciary has won him few friends among judges who stood strong against Mursi’s attempts to bring them to heel.

However, most ordinary Egyptians are attracted by El-Sissi’s promise of greater security and economic progress; they are sick and tired of violent protests and bombings, some are nostalgic for the Mubarak era when business was booming and the streets were safe. In fact, a crowd turned up outside the military hospital in Cairo where Hosni Mubarak is staying with a giant cake in celebration of his 86th birthday. Purist western-style democracy is the last thing on most minds when their homeland is in turmoil; they’re placing their bets on a strongman who, in their eyes, has already proved his courage and patriotic credentials.

El-Sissi’s slogan is “unity, stability and prosperity.” The retired army man has solid backing from the nation’s decision makers in just about every sector — the military, political elites, major political parties, state institutions, the business community, the media, as well as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Coptic Pope.

He’s being cheered on by one of the oldest established parties, the Wafd, that’s historically been anti-military.

Other parties in his camp are the leftist Al-Taggamu, the liberal Free Egyptians, founded by billionaire tycoon Naguib Sawaris, the broadly secular Egyptian Conference Party and the Salafist Al-Nour Party. And last but definitely not least the rebel Tamarod Movement that has plans to morph into a political party after the elections. Quite an eclectic mix!