Cairo, Dec. 19, (dpa/GNA) – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi secured a third six-year term in office after receiving nearly 90% of the vote in last week’s election, keeping him in power until at least 2030.
The presidential election was overshadowed by the war in Gaza and a severe domestic economic crisis – but al-Sissi’s win was never in doubt.
Of the 44.7 million Egyptians who cast their ballots inside and outside the country, more than 39.7 million voted for al-Sissi, or 89.6%, the National Election Authority said. His current term ends in 2024.
Voter turnout reached 66.8%, Hazem Badawi, the authority’s head, told a press conference in Cairo.
For weeks before the elections, authorities have urged people to vote en masse, after the previous elections in 2018 were criticized for a low turnout that stood at 40%.
“There were no violations or irregularities that marred the electoral process,” Badawi added.
However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized authorities for arrests, intimidation, and obstacles for candidates, which prevented any meaningful competition.
“The government’s elimination of an independent election is the latest chapter of an ongoing repression campaign that has largely destroyed civic space and shackled political participation in the country over the past decade,” said Amr Magdi, HRW’s senior Middle East and North Africa researcher.
While there were three candidates running against al-Sissi, the most prominent opposition candidate, Ahmed al-Tantawi, was eliminated before the race began. He now faces a trial along with 22 members of his campaign.
In 2013, the army led by al-Sissi deposed Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected but divisive Islamist president.
Al-Sissi was elected in 2014 and 2018, and both times he achieved a landslide victory with a 97% win.
The general-turned-president’s backers see him as a guarantor of stability amid regional turmoil. His critics, however, blame him for the deteriorating economic situation and lack of freedoms.
“I am fully aware of the magnitude of the challenges that we have faced and are still encountering,” al-Sissi said in a televised speech, after the results were announced.
He said the war in Gaza is the most prominent challenge facing the country, as it poses “a grave threat to Egypt’s national security and the Palestinian cause in general.”
While there is growing discontent with soaring inflation at home, al-Sissi has regained some popular support amid the war in the Gaza Strip. Many Egyptians approve of his policies and his warnings about the feared displacement of Gazans to Egypt amid the Israeli onslaught.
This year, al-Sissi had three opponents.
Hazem Omar, the founder of the People’s Republican Party; Farid Zahran, a leftist politician heading the Social Democratic Party; and Abdel-Sanad Yamama, the head of the liberal Wafd party.
They received 4.5%, 4% and 1.9% of the votes respectively.
The election was held over three days in Egypt on December 10-12, and Egyptian expats voted on December 1-3 abroad.
After the results, Egyptians will now be anticipating a devaluation of the local currency, which analysts expect to take place in January after the gap between the official and black market rates of the US dollar to the Egyptian pound kept widening in recent months.
One US dollar stands at nearly 31 Egyptian pounds at the banks, while it hovers around 50 pounds in the parallel market.
A more flexible exchange rate has been a demand by lenders and foreign investors, but the government has focused ahead of the elections on policies that decreases record inflation rates.
Al-Sissi has led the country for more than 10 years, during which thousands of secular activists and Islamists have been imprisoned or forced into exile, and the media scene has been mostly controlled by al-Sissi’s loyalists.
In recent months, the government has released dozens of detained dissidents.
GNA