Egypt’s President Sisi Clinches 3rd Term, Defying Odds, Shaping Country’s Future
Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) announced on Monday that incumbent two-term President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had been reelected to another six-year term in office after a landslide victory in the country’s recent presidential election.
Voting was held from December 10 through 12 within Egypt and from December 1 through 3 for Egyptian citizens living and voting abroad in one of 137 Egyptian embassies and consulates across 121 countries.
Head of the NEA, Judge Hazem Badawy, publicized the results, declaring that this year’s election witnessed a historic turnout from the Egyptian public. Across 9,376 polling stations nationwide, Egyptians voted in 11,631 subcommittees overseen by more than 15,000 judges. Roughly 66.8% of eligible voters cast a ballot in this year’s presidential election, or 44.7 million out of 67.3 million overall.
Sisi’s electoral victory was comprehensive; the former army general secured a dominating 89.6% of the vote share, with roughly 39.7 million individual ballots being cast for him.
For international election observers, Sisi’s resounding victory did not come as a surprise. The Egyptian president, now entering his third term, came to power in 2013 after ousting the recently elected President, Mohamed Morsi. In the 2012 Egyptian presidential election, Morsi ran under the Freedom and Justice Party, which served as the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Islamist ideology that rose to regional prominence in the wake of 2011 Arab Spring. Morsi’s administration was plagued by a series of economic, security, and diplomatic crises and was seen by the Egyptian military as a threat to regional and internal stability. Sisi and his allies then deposed Morsi in a coup and went on to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
During Sisi’s tenure as chief executive, his administration has consistently utilized authoritarian and undemocratic actions to quell dissent, target political opponents, and weaken civil liberties in Egypt. Nonetheless, three other official candidates for president were on the ballot in last week’s election.
According to Judge Badawy, “Hazem Omar, head of the People’s Republican Party, won 1.9 million votes, or 4.5% of the total votes; Farid Zahran, chairman of the leftist Egyptian Social Democratic Party, won 1.7 million votes (4%); and Abdel-Sanad Yamama, head of the Wafd Party, won 822.6 thousand votes (1.9%).”
Speaking to the Egyptian people after his victory was declared, Sisi said in a speech: “I followed the election scene closely, and I want to express my great gratitude to all the Egyptians who participated in the elections during these ‘delicate circumstances’ in which the country faces, most notably the war on our borders, which poses challenges to national security and the Palestinian cause.”
“I renew my pledge to you to continue building “the new republic” that we are all working to build—a democratic state that protects all its citizens, based on science and technology. and preserve its identity and culture, seeks to provide them with a decent life, and possesses the military and political capabilities to preserve national security,” he added.
Sisi’s government will face considerable regional challenges in the years to come, including the continued insurgency against Islamic militants in the North Sinai, water access disputes with Ethiopia to the south, and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
