Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik has said via his Twitter account he will no longer challenge incumbent President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in this year’s elections.

“I saw that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state during the coming period. Thus I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections,” Shafik said in a statement posted on the social media site on Sunday.

The former air force commander had been seen as the most serious challenge to Sisi even though the president has not officially announced his candidacy.

Egypt's National Electoral Commission (NEC) will on Monday afternoon announce the timetable of the country's upcoming presidential elections – expected in the spring of 2018 – and details of the electoral process.

The independent NEC, established by a presidential decree in August 2017, is a 10-member commission and has sole responsibility for supervising general elections and referendums in Egypt.

The president of Egypt is elected using the two-round system, as outlined in Egypt’s constitution.

Election proceedings are to begin no later than 120 days before the end date of the current presidential term on June 7, 2018 and results will be announced no later than 30 days before the end of the current presidential term.

The last presidential elections were held in May 2014, with Sisi securing 96 percent of the vote against his sole competitor, Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist and leader of the Egyptian Popular Current party Hamdeen Sabahi.