( CNN ) -- Egypt 's presidential elections will take place on May 26 and 27 , Egyptian media reported Sunday , citing an announcement by the country 's Presidential Elections Commission . Army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced Wednesday that he would resign and declared his candidacy in the national polls . El-Sisi , 59 , Egypt 's defense minister , had to leave the army in order to run for president . El-Sisi deposed President Mohamed Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood , Egypt 's first freely elected leader , last year following mass protests against the latter 's rule . The officer is popular among Egyptians who supported the army 's decision to remove Morsy from power a year into his term -- seeing el-Sisi as the kind of strong man needed to end the turmoil dogging Egypt since a popular uprising in 2011 ended Hosni Mubarak 's three decades of one-man rule . But el-Sisi is reviled by the Islamist opposition , which sees him as the mastermind of a coup against an elected leader and the author of a fierce crackdown on dissent . Egypt has suffered bloody internal strife since Morsy was overthrown . Also on Sunday , unknown gunmen opened fire on a security personnel carrier in Egypt 's Sinai region , killing one soldier and injuring three policemen , the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported , citing a military source . The security personnel carrier was traveling on a motorway in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid , the source told the Al-Ahram Arabic news website , without elaborating . Militants based in the Sinai peninsula near the Israeli border have stepped up attacks on soldiers and policemen since Morsy 's ouster . Morsy and other Brotherhood leaders were rounded up soon after . CNN 's Marie-Louise Gumuchian contributed to this report .
Army General Abdel Aziz el - Sheikh has declared his resignation and lost in the national polls . El - Sisi deposed President Mohamed Ali of the Muslim Brotherhood last July . Egypt has suffered bloody internal strife since Morsy was deposed . One soldier killed when gunmen open fire on personnel carrier in Sinai , source tells Al - Ahram .