El Sisi looks to take on Egypt’s economic challenges

With the elections out of the way, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi must turn his attention to the challenges of overhauling the economy.

Three days of voting ended on Tuesday night. The National Election Commission said the turnout would stand at about 45 per cent when all votes are counted.

There are 67 million registered voters in Egypt, a country of 105 million people.

The election’s final result will be announced on December 18. Unofficial forecasts published in local media say Mr El Sisi has secured a landslide victory with up to 95 per cent of the vote.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the 69-year-old, first elected in 2014, will rule Egypt until 2030.

By then, he will have served 16 years in office. Under the constitution, he is not allowed to seek re-election in 2030.

The President was able to run for a third term after constitutional amendments proposed in 2018 by a parliament packed with his supporters.

The changes, adopted in a nationwide referendum in 2019, extended presidential terms from four to six years but kept at two the number of terms a president can serve. A clause added to the constitution, however, disregarded the four years he had served between 2014 and 2018.

The election, Mr El Sisi’s third, was a lacklustre affair since it was held as most Egyptians were preoccupied with the Israel-Gaza war next door and the economic crisis that has badly affected the poor and the middle class.

With the outcome virtually a foregone conclusion, the focus of Mr El Sisi’s campaign was to secure a decent turnout that could be used as a renewed mandate for the president to tackle the nation’s economic woes.

Egypt is devastated by record inflation, a depreciating currency and a crippling foreign currency crunch.

But with most Egyptians already struggling to make ends meet in the face of soaring prices, increasing taxes further or raising utility charges to help the economy is something that they cannot afford.

This leaves a multibillion-dollar rescue package from Egypt’s regional and international allies as a highly likely solution to the crisis.

Egypt needs more than $40 billion in 2024 to service its $165 billion of foreign debt.

To comply with the International Monetary Fund’s requirement for a flexible foreign exchange regime, Egypt will undergo its fourth currency devaluation since March last year.

The economic reforms will also involve a substantial reduction of state and military involvement in the economy, fostering increased private sector participation.