Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been reelected for a third, six-year term in office. He has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since seizing power from Islamists a decade ago, but now faces mounting frustration over an economic crisis.
Election authorities announced in Cairo on Monday that al-Sisi recorded a landslide victory, securing 89.6 percent of the vote, with a turnout of 66.8 percent of more than 67 million registered voters.
The head of the National Election Authority, Hazem Badawy declared: “The voting percentage is the highest in the history of Egypt," during a televised news conference.
However, the vote was overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Egypt’s eastern border, which has threatened to expand into wider regional turmoil.
The North African country is also in the midst of an economic crisis, with monthly inflation surging above 30 percent.
According to official figures over the past 22 months, the Egyptian pound has lost 50 percent of value against the dollar with one third of the country's 105 million people already living in poverty.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wins a new term as president of Egypt: the National Election Authority 🗳️🇪🇬#EgyptElection #Egypt | #مصر #الانتخابات #الانتخابات_الرئاسية_المصرية #الانتخابات_الرئاسية #السيسي_شعب_مصر_اختاره #السيسي #تحيا_مصر pic.twitter.com/L5V3IBmIDl
— Egypt Today Magazine (@EgyptTodayMag) December 18, 2023
'Unknown' opponents
A key Western ally in the region, al-Sisi has faced international criticism over Egypt’s human rights record and harsh crackdown on dissent.
He led the 2013 military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president amid widespread street protests against his one-year rule.
He was first elected as president in mid-2014, then re-elected in 2018.
A year later, constitutional amendments – passed in a general referendum – added two years to al-Sisi's second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term.
His victory in the latest election was widely deemed a foregone conclusion.
His three opponents were marginal political figures who were rarely seen during the election campaign.
One ambitious young presidential hopeful, Ahmed al-Tantawy, dropped out of the race after he failed to secure the required signatures from residents to validate his candidacy.
He was considered al-Sisi’s most credible opponent and said that harassment from security agencies against his campaign staff and supporters prevented him from reaching the vote threshold for candidacy.
History of mismanagement
In the months prior to the election, al-Sisi vowed to address the country's ailing economy without offering specifics.
Experts and economists widely agree that the current crisis stems from years of mismanagement and lopsided economy where private firms are squeezed out by state-owned companies.
The Egyptian economy has also been hurt by the wider repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, which rattled the global market.
Al-Sisi's government initiated an ambitious IMF-backed reform programme in 2016, but austerity measures sent prices soaring, exacting a heavy toll on ordinary Egyptians.
Also, under his watch, thousands of government critics have been silenced or jailed.
They are mainly Islamists but also prominent secular activists and opposition figures, including many of those behind the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
