An unsurprising victory. Outgoing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi won Egypt’s presidential election with 89.6% of the vote, securing a new six-year term, the National Elections Authority announced on Monday.
Authority head Hazem Badawy said turnout reached an “unprecedented” rate of 66.8% among Egypt’s 67 million voters. More than 39 million voters voted for the president who has led the country for a decade. The former marshal nevertheless experienced a small decline compared to the two previous presidential elections of 2014 and 2018, where he twice won with more than 96% of the votes.
He was opposed to three candidates: Hazem Omar, leader of the Republican People’s Party and second in the vote with 4.5% of the vote, Farid Zahran, leader of a small left-wing party and Abdel-Sanad Yamama, of the Wafd, a century-old party but now marginal. Al-Sissi’s victory ensures him a third term starting in April and supposed to be his last, in accordance with the Egyptian Constitution.
Inflation at 36.4%
If the election of al-Sissi was more than expected, the country of 106 million inhabitants remains prey to multiple crises. Economical, already, with inflation currently at 36.4%, while the currency has lost half its value and the prices of certain basic foods are increasing every week. Two thirds of the population also live below or just above the poverty line.
But it was above all the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas which disrupted the regime of Al-Sissi, which borders the Gaza Strip. “Since the start of the conflict, the entire region has feared that the war in Gaza would destabilize Egypt and Jordan,” Camille Lons, specialist on the Persian Gulf at the European Council on International Relations, told L’Express. The risk of massive influx of population from Gaza to Egypt, in particular, was identified very early on.” Re-elected for six years, al-Sissi will undoubtedly remain one of the central figures in the region’s future.