Cairo: Pro-military Egyptians late Wednesday poured into the nation’s streets in jubilation following a TV announcement by the country’s strongman Abdul Fattah Al Sissi that he had quit his post as defence minister to run for presidency.

Al Sissi’s backers waved the national flag and set off fireworks as others honked their cars in celebration in several areas of Cairo while women appeared on balconies and let out joy cries.

Al Sissi has gained wide popularity in Egypt since July last year when he led the military’s overthrew of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi following enormous street protests against his troubled one-year rule.

Coffee shops in some Cairo working-class areas were packed with celebrants, some of whom insisted on paying for drinks of other customers in a gesture of joy over the ex-general’s presidential bid.

Al Sissi, 59, is expected to win the presidential polls, likely to be held in May.

His supporters see him as able to re-establish security and re-invigorate the economy, which have deteriorated since a 2011 uprising unseated long-standing president Hosni Mubarak.

Hamdeen Sabahi, a leftist politician who is so far the only civilian contender for the country’s top post, welcomed Al Sissi’s decision to stand for president. “I welcome the nomination of Mr Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and hope to see democratic and fair elections in which the state [institutions] will be impartial,” he said in a tweet. Sabahi, 60, came third in Egypt’s 2012 presidential polls.

A pro-Mursi alliance, meanwhile, called for mass protests on Friday against Al Sissi’s election bid. Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood said that Al Sissi’s nomination is “tantamount to an unabashed recognition of his plot to remove the elected president Mohammad Mursi and cancel the popular will.”

The now-outlawed Brotherhood has been holding almost daily street protests since Mursi’s toppling. The numbers of participants have dwindled in recent weeks due to the military-backed authorities’ inexorable crackdown on the group’s followers.

“We completely reject (Al Sissi’s) nomination because it poses a grave danger to Egypt’s future and the sought-after democracy,” the Islamist Strong Egypt said. “We call on the armed forces to take their hands off politics and withdraw their nominee,” added the party led by former presidential candidate Abdul Moneim Abul Fotouh.