Egypt: President Sisi Gets Re-elected for Third Term
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the President of Egypt, has been re-elected for a third term with an overwhelming majority of 89.6% of the votes. This comes as no surprise, as the election was held with a limited number of candidates, and al-Sisi, a former army chief known for focusing on large-scale infrastructure projects, campaigned successfully.
Based on the Egyptian constitution, this will be al-Sisi's final term in office, starting in April and lasting six years. After the Egyptian constitution was modified in 2019, granting a longer presidential term and permitting Sisi to run for a third term, he successfully secured the highest position in the country.
Hazem Omar, the runner-up from the Republican People's Party, secured 4.5 percent of the vote. Following him were Farid Zahran, leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a longstanding yet less influential party.
The election authority reported an "unprecedented" turnout of 66.8 percent among the 67 million registered voters, a significant increase from 41 percent in 2018 and 47 percent in 2014. However, in many parts of Cairo, the presence of the election was predominantly represented by campaign posters of Sisi, with limited visibility of banners for other candidates.
Despite a painful economic crisis characterized by a currency decline and rising household prices, as well as regional tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in neighboring Gaza, he emerged victorious. The annual inflation rate is currently at 36.4 percent, causing the prices of essential food items to soar and impacting the budgets of households in the country, which has a population of almost 106 million.
Even before the current economic crisis, approximately two-thirds of Egypt's population lived in or below the poverty line. The suppression of dissent for the past decade has eradicated any significant competition for Sisi, the fifth president of Egypt to emerge from the military since 1952.
This is the third time in a decade that Sisi has won by a significant margin, although this victory has the smallest margin compared to his previous wins in 2014 and 2018, where he garnered over 96 percent of the vote.
Several individuals stated that the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict influenced their decision to support Sisi in the elections. Sisi, who has acknowledged the war as Egypt's most significant obstacle, made a statement after the results were declared, highlighting that Egyptians cast their votes not only to elect their next president but also to demonstrate their opposition to this cruel conflict on a global scale.