Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabahi has warned of a revolt by the Egyptian people should their new president disregard their demands.
"Egyptians will revolt if the policies of the Hosni Mubarak regime – which have impoverished Egyptians, plundered the country's resources and weakened its [global] position – are maintained," his campaign team quoted him as saying in a statement on Sunday.
The statement added that Sabahi's remarks, which he made during an interview with Egypt's independent daily Al-Shorouk, were misinterpreted by several media outlets.
"Any regime that does not pay heed to the Egyptians' demands will see the same fate as Mubarak's and [his successor] Mohamed Morsi's," Sabahi said.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was toppled by the army last summer on the back of massive protests against his single troubled year in power.
Egypt's presidential vote is due to take place next week, on 26-27 May. Sabahi, who came third in the 2011 elections, is running for the country's top post against only one rival, former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who is highly tipped to win the vote by a large majority.
The leftist leader, however, has said that results are not a foregone conclusion, adding that his chances to win hinge on the people's participation in the vote.
In a Sunday meeting with Egyptian writers and intellectuals, Sabahi said he would be to blame if he failed in the decisive poll.
"If I fail, it is my responsibility and my team's responsibility, not the people's," Al-Ahram's Arabic news website quote him as saying.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an estimated 265,000 Egyptian expatriates have already cast their ballots in the overseas poll that concludes on Monday.
