El-Sissi will seek 2nd term, but he has little competition
Egypt’s military-backed president announced late Friday his intention to run for a second term in an election whose integrity has already been questioned.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s declaration, which came during a televised news conference intended to showcase “a balance sheet” of his first-term achievements, surprised few in Egypt, where many regard his victory as a foregone conclusion.
El-Sissi, a former general, rose to power in 2013 after deposing Mohammed Morsi, an unpopular but democratically elected Islamist president. After Morsi’s ouster, el-Sissi’s government killed hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoned thousands of critics of all stripes. A year later, he became president after winning 97 percent of the vote in an election that was marked by a low turnout.
The 2018 vote will be held March 26-28, with a runoff vote in late April if no candi- date wins a majority in the first round.
“I pledge that the upcom- ing presidential election will be free and transpar- ent,” el-Sissi said during his speech, adding that the campaign would be “characterized by equal opportunities between candidates.”
But el-Sissi has almost no competition.
His strongest would-be challenger, Ahmed Shafiq, a former general and poli- tician, quietly pulled out of the race this month after deciding that he was “not the best person to manage state affairs.” One of his lawyers said the government had forced him to drop out by threatening to investigate
A second potential competitor also complained of being pressured to quit. Anwar Sadat, a nephew of the former president, who had considered running, said the atmosphere was not conducive to “honest competition.”
Khaled Ali, a leftist lawyer who is el-Sissi’s only serious opponent, is at risk of being disqualified by a public inde- cency conviction. Ali was accused of making a vulgar hand gesture outside a Cairo courthouse last year after he secured a legal victory over el-Sissi’s government. If Ali fails in his appeal, scheduled for March 7, el-Sissi will be left alone in the field with Sami Anan, a retired general who has been out of the public eye for years.
El-Sissi says his crack- down on liberties is needed to restore stability to Egypt, whose economy is still reel- ing from the chaos that followed the Arab Spring revolt, which ended the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Despite an uptick in militant attacks on security installments and civilian gatherings, el-Sissi’s government has managed to bring some stability to the country.
El-Sissi has also overseen painful economic reforms, which were praised by the I nternat i onal Monetary Fund, and he enjoys the backing of regional and Western allies who support his efforts to quell an Islamic insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.
International human rights groups have routinely criticized el-Sissi’s iron-fisted policies, saying they fuel radicalization.