Ayman Ahmed
The potato-faced General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi greeted the December 18 announcement by Egypt’s National Elections Authority declaring his ‘victory’ with a broad grin. He ‘won’ a third term as president in elections held between December 10 and 12.
What was surprising was that Sisi garnered only 89.6 percent of the vote. In the past, Egyptian tyrants have been winning 99.9% of the vote. Not Mr. el-Sisi. He wants to create the impression that the elections were fair and that other candidates also got some votes.
His nearest rival, Hazem Omar of the Republican People’s Party, received 4.5 percent of the vote. Two other candidates—Farid Zahran, leader of the leftist Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd Party—brought up the rear. This was meant to give the farce a semblance of respectability. Since the three supposed rivals were also rooting for Mr. el-Sisi, there have been no reports of the ever-vigilant mukhabarat (the intelligence agency) going after them to demand why they opposed the strongman.
There are reports that champaign bottles were popped in the presidential palace when el-Sisi’s “victory” was announced. It is not known whether the Sheikh of Al-Azhar was also present when the glasses were raised. In any case, he would probably have issued a fatwa that on such a joyous occasion, it was permissible to do so.
Head of the National Elections Authority, Hazem Badawy announced that turnout was an “unprecedented” 66.8 percent of voters. Many Egyptians received the news with a gasp. They had not seen any line-ups of people to cast ballot. Instead, what el-Sisi and his supporters in the military and business had done was to bribe or intimidate people to come out to vote.
Leading to the vote, Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy in Washington DC, said el-Sisi could be embarrassed if there is a low voter turnout.
“That’s why the usual combination of intimidation and bribing tactics are at play: Threatening school teachers and civil workers to come out to vote or else they will face consequences, giving out cash to people and providing transportation to bus people in big numbers to show up and dance at the polls,” she told Al Jazeera.
It is, however, the morning after that is important. Presidential elections were not due until April 2024 but el-Sisi brought them forward. It is not as if the brute in uniform has suddenly become a democrat. During his 10-year stint as president, he has driven the Egyptian economy into the ground with his grandiose but wasteful plans. The country is facing its worst-ever economic crisis.
During the 2018 presidential elections, Sisi had said he would not run again since the constitution did not allow him to do so. Once he got in, he amended the constitution to run for a third term. Now this is supposed to be his “final term” but nobody is betting on it. Power is addictive, especially when one is an absolute dictator.
He could easily present the argument that Egypt is going through difficult times—no doubt—and it needs a steady hand. That the difficulties Egypt is facing are caused by Sisi’s incompetence, mismanagement and corruption but one is not supposed to talk about them. Doing so would result in a one-way ticket to prison where torture is rampant. Many prisoners have died due to neglect and lack of medications.
The number of political prisoners in Egypt is believed to be 65,000, according to Human Rights First. Not surprisingly, building prisons is the only growth industry in Egypt, much like in the US, its godfather. When Sisi starts his third term as president in April 2024, he will face some daunting challenges.
The Egyptian pound has lost 50 percent of its value against the US dollar and the cost of living is soaring. One estimate puts inflation at an unsustainable 88 percent. Egypt’s debt has soared. The regime is forced to borrow on the international market to pay merely for the interest on debt.
“Egypt’s total debt has risen by 93 percent in just five years and debt service is expected to increase by 62 percent from the financial year 2020/2021 to 2023/2024.
“In the 2022/2023 budget, debt accounted for nearly 50 percent of expenditure. In other words, Egypt is borrowing just to survive and the only way to meet those debt obligations is to borrow more,” according to Yehia Hamed, minister for investment in Mohamed Morsi’s short-lived government.
He had presented this analysis in January 2023. In the one-year period since, Egypt’s economic plight has worsened. This is the direct result of Sisi’s incompetence and gross mismanagement. He insists on going ahead with building the new administrative capital outside Cairo that has already consumed US$55 billion. It is nowhere near completion. In 2024, Egypt must repay US$29 billion of outstanding debt maturities.
Where will the money come from? Egypt’s two main sources of income are revenues from the Suez Canal and tourism. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the Yemeni Ansarallah’s targeting of Israel-bound shipping in the Red Sea has badly affected traffic through the Suez Canal.
Tourism has been badly hit because of the war in Ukraine. True, there is talk that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may increase support for Egypt from $3 billion to $5 billion in 2024. This, according to sources, is due to IMF concern about countries that have been affected by Israel’s war on Gaza.
While an additional $2 billion will help Egypt somewhat, it cannot bridge the $29 billion gap of interest repayment on debt. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has also scared away tourists. Nobody wants to go near a war zone. The pharaoh lying in a glass casing in Cairo Museum must be feeling awfully lonely. Perhaps he is waiting for Sisi to join him in a glass casing next to him.
That would be poetic justice.
The ballot papers were all printed and arranged in neat piles in each polling station. The ballot boxes duly locked were also delivered to t...
The three-year dictatorship of the Egyptian Pharaoh, El-Sisi has increased the misery of the people and there is no end in sight for any rel...
The Sisi regime in Egypt is one of the most brutal in the long tortuous history of the country. In Egypt’s dungeons, political opponents a...
There are at least 65,000 political prisoners in El-Sisi’s dungeons where they are subjected to extreme torture. Many prisoners suffer fro...
