On Monday night, the Egyptian president officially announced his candidacy for the presidential elections to be held from December 10 to 12. Abdelfatah al-Sisi declared that he wanted to “run to continue dreaming of a new mandate.”
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Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in power in Egypt since the overthrow of Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi in 2013, announced on Monday night, October 2, that he will run in the presidential elections in December, an election that will be held within the framework of a economic crisis that promises to be more difficult than previous ones.
At the end of a conference in which he described “ten years of success,” he stated that he wanted to “present himself to continue dreaming of a new mandate.” I invite “all voters to vote, even if it is not for me,” she added.
While his rivals denounced “attacks” against their supporters, thousands of people who supported the head of state had traveled by bus to the squares of the main cities, and their joy was broadcast live on the stage where Abdel Fattah al-Sissi was speaking. .
“We have all taken to the streets to support President Abdelfatah al-Sisi for his great projects, there is no one better for the future,” Hassan Afifi, a teacher who had gone with his students to a square in Cairo, told AFP. .
In 2014 and again in 2018, president-candidate al-Sisi won with 96% and then 97% of the votes against an opposition crushed by relentless or puppet repression.
Although experts do not doubt his victory, the number of opposition candidates that directly attack the president and the powerful army from which he emerged is increasing, an unprecedented fact since he assumed power.
Ahmed al-Tantawy seeks 25,000 signatures from citizens
The relatives of several leaders of historical parties claim to have gathered the 20 signatures of deputies necessary to run for the supreme court.
Ahmed al-Tantawy, a 44-year-old former deputy accustomed to outbursts against al-Sisi, has decided to collect signatures from citizens. He needs 25,000 signatures to validate his candidacy, and for a week he has been traveling the country accompanying his supporters while they register the signatures with the 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 call for common sense, but that does not mean that in the end they can tell us: ‘I’m sorry, you don’t have enough signatures,'” he warned.
The videos of his supporters chanting slogans in the street in a country where demonstrations are prohibited, his interviews with independent media and his insistence on campaigning for the “rule of law” are a novelty in Egypt, where public debate has been reduced to nothing since 2013.
“I’m shocked, he offers us to starve.”
Opposite him, Abdelfatah al-Sisi is going to the polls for the third time, the last according to the Constitution that he had amended in 2019 to be able to run for re-election and extend his term from four to six years.
On Saturday, he warned Egypt’s 105 million people, already strangled by 40% inflation and a 50% devaluation, that they would have to make “sacrifices.” “If construction, development and progress have to come at the price of hunger and deprivation, never say ‘We would rather have food,'” she said.
Social networks, where Egyptians have long been wary of being too virulent as arrests for online writings have multiplied, immediately caught fire.
“I’m shocked, he’s proposing famine,” said one netizen. “Normally, people make electoral promises, even false ones, but he is promising famine,” said another.
On Sunday, another of his statements caused a scandal: “I can destroy the country (…) with 100,000 poor people if I give them a pinch of marijuana, 1,000 Egyptian pounds and Tramadol pills.” His outburst reminded some Egyptians of the 2011 “revolution,” when the regime mobilized henchmen to attack protesters.
The authorities have brought forward the presidential elections by several months in order, according to experts, to be able to carry out a new devaluation at the same time.
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 – which have done nothing more than deplete the state coffers and triple the debt.
*With AFP; adapted from its French original
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