2023-10-03 03:36:00
The president of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al Sisi, in power since he overthrew the Islamist Mohamed Mursi in 2013, confirmed this Monday that he will seek to renew his mandate in the December elections, in the midst of the country’s economic crisis.
“I announce that I am running again,” declared Al Sisi during a speech broadcast on Egyptian television channels.
After a conference in which he spoke about “ten years of success,” he said he wants to “run to continue dreaming of a new mandate.”
Besides, I invite “all voters to vote, even if it is not for me”he added, according to the AFP news agency.
When his rivals denounce “attacks” against them, since the morning thousands of Al Sisi’s supporters arrived in buses to the squares of Cairo, where stages were set up and posters were seen proclaiming “yes to stability.”
Hours before his statement, thousands of Egyptians had today called for a third term for Sisi.
In 2014 and then in 2018, Sisi won the elections with 96% and 97% of the votes respectively against the opposition, which denounced that it is a victim of persecution and repression.
In April 2019, a referendum approved constitutional amendments that now enabled Al Sisi to seek a new mandate that will also extend from four to six years.
In an unprecedented event since Al Sisi took power, The opposition candidates increased and several leaders of historical parties collected the signatures of deputies and citizens necessary to be able to run.
Former opposition deputy Ahmed al Tantawy, 44, collects signatures from citizens and needs 25,000 to validate his candidacy, so he is touring the country.
Al Tantawy claimed in recent weeks that his phone was tapped and said dozens of his supporters were detained, while his campaign team maintains that signatures are rejected.
The presidential elections in Egypt will be held from December 10 to 12.
“The final results will be published on December 18,” The National Elections Authority (NEA) reported last week.
The organization detailed that the candidacies must be presented between the 5th and the 14th of this month; The proselytizing campaign will take place between November 9 and 29, and residents abroad will vote from December 1 to 3.
To run, the support of 20 parliamentarians or 25,000 registered voters in at least 15 provinces will be necessary, with at least 1,000 signatures in each of them, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram.
Al Sisi’s second term officially ends on April 2, 2024, reported the Sputnik news agency.
Al Sisi came to government following the 2013 coup against the Islamist Mohamed Mursi, who a year earlier had become the country’s first elected president after the fall of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring.
Since then, the president has promoted a broad campaign of repression and persecution of opponents, both liberal groups and Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, an initiative that humanitarian organizations denounced as the most serious in recent times.
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