[5] On 3 November 2019, Tantawi posted a YouTube video in which he proposed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi leave power in 2022, rather than in 2024 as defined in the 2019 constitutional amendment.

He described his aim as a serious attempt to solve "the real crisis Egypt is living through, which authorities should pay attention to before it is too late" and that the proposal would help to "absorb public outrage".

[9] In late September of 2023 and early October, Tantawi began touring for his campaign in "Giza, downtown Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubiya, Beheira, Gharbeia, Daqahliya and Kafr El Sheikh.

[11][12] It was also revealed that security forces hacked into Tantawi's iPhone by a network injected Predator spyware through Vodafone Egypt mobile connection.

Both Citizen Lab and Google's Threat Analysis Group indicated that the attempts began as early as May and continued through August, using various methods, leading Apple to issue security updates on 21 September to patch the vulnerabilities exploited by the spyware.

[13] On 13 October, Tantawi announced that he failed to meet the minimum quota of 25,000 endorsements managing only to secure around 14,000, hence his bid for the presidential elections was unsuccessful.