On Monday evening, the Egyptian president officially announced his candidacy for the December 10-12 presidential election. Abdelfatah al-Sisi said he wanted to run “to continue to dream of a new mandate.”
First change: February 10, 2023 – 11:25 p.m
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Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has been in power in Egypt since the overthrow of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi in 2013, announced on Monday evening, October 2, that he would run in December’s presidential election, an election that will take place within the framework of an economic crisis that promises to be more difficult than the previous ones.
At the end of a conference in which he spoke of “ten successful years”, he declared that he wanted to “present himself in order to continue to dream of a new mandate”. I invite “all voters to vote, even if it is not for me,” he added.
While his rivals denounced “attacks” against their supporters, thousands of the head of state’s supporters bused themselves to the squares of the main cities, their joy broadcast live on the stage where Abdel Fattah al-Sissi spoke. .
“We all took to the streets to support President Abdelfatah al-Sisi in his great projects. There is no one better for the future,” Hassan Afifi, a teacher who went to a square in Cairo with his students, told AFP. .
In 2014 and again in 2018, presidential candidate al-Sisi won with 96% and then 97% of the vote against an opposition crushed by relentless repression or puppet repression.
Although experts do not doubt his victory, the number of opposition candidates directly attacking the president and the powerful army from which he emerged is increasing, an unprecedented fact since he came to power.
Ahmed al-Tantawy is asking for 25,000 signatures from citizens
The relatives of several leaders of historic parties say they have collected the 20 signatures of lawmakers needed to run for the Supreme Court.
Ahmed al-Tantawy, a 44-year-old former lawmaker accustomed to outbursts against al-Sisi, has decided to collect signatures from citizens. He needs 25,000 signatures to confirm his candidacy, and for the past week he has been traveling around the country accompanying his supporters as they register the signatures with authorities.
He has reported that his phone has been tapped, that dozens of his supporters have been arrested, and that his campaign team reports daily that signatures are being rejected or his supporters are being attacked.
“Be careful, the pressure (…) is dangerous. We ask for common sense, but that doesn’t mean they can end up telling us: ‘I’m sorry, you don’t have enough signatures,'” he warned.
The videos of his supporters chanting slogans in the streets in a country where demonstrations are banned, his interviews with independent media and his insistence on advocating for the “rule of law” are a first in Egypt, where the public debate has been reduced to zero since 2013.
“I’m shocked, he’s offering to starve us.”
Opposite him, Abdelfatah al-Sisi is voting for the third time, the last time under the constitution, which he amended in 2019 to run for re-election and extend his mandate from four to six years.
On Saturday, he warned Egypt’s 105 million people, already strangled by 40% inflation and 50% devaluation, that they would have to make “sacrifices.” “If construction, development and progress have to be bought at the price of hunger and deprivation, then never say: ‘We would rather have food,’” he said.
Social networks, where Egyptians had long shied away from being too vicious as arrests for online writing multiplied, were immediately thrown into turmoil.
“I’m shocked, he’s suggesting a famine,” said one netizen. “Usually people make campaign promises, even false ones, but he promises famine,” said another.
On Sunday, another of his statements caused a scandal: “I can destroy the country (…) of 100,000 poor people if I give them a pinch of marijuana, 1,000 Egyptian pounds and tramadol pills.” His outburst reminded some Egyptians the “revolution” of 2011, when the regime mobilized henchmen to attack demonstrators.
The authorities brought forward the presidential elections by several months in order to be able to carry out a new devaluation at the same time, according to experts.
Abdelfatah al-Sisi claims to have defeated “terrorism” and made “development” his priority. Economists, on the other hand, denounce the pharaonic megaprojects – new cities including the new capital, high-speed trains, bridges and roads – that have achieved nothing other than depleting state coffers and tripling debts.
*With AFP; adapted from the French original