Poll gives resounding victory for Al Sissi
EARLY RESULTS SHOW EGYPT PRESIDENT HAS WON WITH 92% OF VOTES
Early results from Egypt’s election showed President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi cruising towards his expected landslide victory and a second term, but with a slightly lower turnout than the vote that brought him to power four years ago.
As ballots are tallied for official results due on April 2, the focus is on turnout since Al Sissi faced no serious opposition.
Initial estimates by state media placed turnout at around 40 per cent.
Al Sissi was first elected in 2014 with 97 per cent of the vote and has this time won around 92 per cent according to preliminary results, state news agency Mena reported state-run newspapers as saying.
It said between 23 and 25 million people had voted, out of an electorate of 59 million.
State-run media hailed Al Sissi’s victory early yesterday, predicting a “big turnout”, and radio programmes said that most of the voters were from Egypt’s fast-growing youth.
“The people have chosen their president,” the front page of state-run daily Al Ahram said.
Al Sissi was generally unknown to ordinary Egyptians until August 2012 when thenpresident Mohammad Mursi picked him to be defence minister, replacing Hussain Tantawi, a veteran confidant of former president Hosni Mubarak. Al Sissi was the chief of the military intelligence service at the time.
After toppling Mursi, he generated a cult-like status in Egypt since the era of the late president Jamal Abdul Nasser, an icon of Arab nationalism who died in 1970.
Portraying himself as a moderate Muslim, Al Sissi has repeatedly urged Muslim scholars to reform religious teachings in order to help fight violent militancy.
Al Sissi is credited with restoring stability to Egypt. He has also launched a series of mega-projects across the nation.
Al Sissi is credited with restoring stability to Egypt. He has also launched a series of megaprojects across the nation.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi has been re-elected for a second term with 92 per cent of the vote, preliminary results showed yesterday.
Some 23 million of the 60 million registered voters turned out during the three days of polling that ended on Wednesday, state-owned newspapers Al
Ahram and Akhbar Al Youm, and the official Mena news agency, putting the turnout at around 40 per cent.
Al Sissi’s sole challenger was the little-known Moussa Mostafa Moussa, himself a supporter of the president, who registered just before the closing date for applications, saving the election from being a one-horse race.
Al Sissi’s election campaign pegged him as the candidate for “hope”.
Al Sissi, who as army chief ousted Egypt’s first freely elected president — Islamist Mohammad Mursi — after mass street protests in 2013, won his first term in 2014 with 96.9 per cent of the vote. The voter turnout was 47 per cent in that year’s election.
At a news conference, election commission official, Mahmood Al Sharif, said there had been no violations of Egypt’s election law.
In an interview days ahead of the vote, Al Sissi said he had wished there were more candidates, denying any role in sidelining them.
At a speech before the vote he also called for a high turnout.
“I need you because the journey is not over,” Al Sissi told a mostly female audience. “I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us in the street” on the day of voting.
Economic reforms
On several occasions, Al Sissi has praised Egypt’s women for their “understanding” of painful economic reforms that have triggered hike in prices of different goods. He has repeatedly defended the steps as unavoidable in order to revive the country’s battered economy.
“The woman is the voice of the pulsating patriotic conscience. I expect a lot from her for this nation,” he said in remarks at a ceremony in Cairo honouring ideal mothers last week.
Female voters cast their ballots in the first two days of the election that ended on Wednesday. Some 59.7 million Egyptians, including 29.3 million women, have registered themselves as voters.
Over the past two days, many women were seen celebrating and dancing outside the polling stations all over the country.
“I’ve come to vote in order to tell Al Sissi: We are with you,” Marwa Sedki said as she waited at a women-only polling booth in the Cairo district of Hadayek Al Qoba. “He is working hard in order to make Egypt the best country in the world. We should support him and be patient,” the government employee added. “Boycotting the election only serves enemies of Egypt.”
“Al Sissi is taking care of women and always salutes them for their national role,” Nadia Abdul Wahab, a housewife, says. “He knows that life is becoming hard for Egyptians, but he is working to make things better. After all, it is better to live with high prices than live as a refugee as is the case with people of several Arab countries,” she added. “With stability, everything will be fine, God willing, in Egypt.”
Over the past four years, Al Sissi has been working to boost the status of women in Egypt and cracking down on sexual harassment, a big problem in the country.
Women empowerment
He has empowered women in the Arab world’s most populous country. Last year, Egypt had its first female governor appointed in the Delta province of Beheira. Women make up around 20 per cent of the current ministers. Last week, Al Sissi said that he might install an all-women government.
Al Sissi is largely credited with re-establishing security in the country, ending the turmoil that followed the 2011 revolt. He has also ordered a major military campaign against Islamist militants mainly in Sinai and the area bordering troubled Libya.
Female voters accounted for around 54 per cent of the Egyptians, who cast ballots in the 2014 election that gave Al Sissi a landslide victory.
Some commentators see nothing surprising about women’s high-profile backing for Al Sissi.
“The Egyptian woman considers the president as her saviour from the Brotherhood,” says Mohammad Ameen, a columnist in independent newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.
“She was the one who felt the harm from having the Brotherhood in power,” he adds.
During its one year in power, the Islamist group and its ultraconservative allies were seen as hostile to women by encouraging practices of child marriages and female circumcision.
“The woman has also accepted the economic reform [initiated by Al Sissi] out of the belief it is a bitter pill that should be taken,” says Amin.
Al Sissi has also been credited for a successful war on terrorism after Islamist militants killed hundreds of policemen and civilians.
Al Sissi gave the armed forces and police a three-month deadline in November to wipe out Daesh in its Sinai Peninsula stronghold.
The deadline has since been extended, and on February 9 the armed forces launched their most comprehensive campaign yet to end the five-year-old insurgency.
Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, have been flooded with banners showing Al Sissi and messages of support from business owners.
Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen.
Al Sissi has embarked on tough economic reforms that have been welcomed by foreign investors but dented his popularity at home.
Al Sissi is credited with restoring stability to Egypt. He has also launched a series of megaprojects across the nation. They include the building of an extension to the historic Suez Canal as part of an ambitious project to turn Egypt into a global logistical and trade hub.
Over the past four years, Al Sissi’s administration has constructed a long network of roads and created an investor-friendly environment. Under Al Sissi, several major electricity stations have also been built, ending an acute energy crunch in this country of nearly 95 million.
In 2015, Egypt started building a new capital aimed at easing the pressure on age-old Cairo.
The Egyptian woman considers the president as her saviour from the Brotherhood. She was the one who felt the harm from having the Brotherhood in power.”
Mohammad Ameen | Journalist