{"id":37048,"date":"2023-12-18T19:51:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T19:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/egypts-sisi-secures-third-term-in-widely-expected-election-win\/"},"modified":"2023-12-18T19:51:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T19:51:05","slug":"egypts-sisi-secures-third-term-in-widely-expected-election-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/egypts-sisi-secures-third-term-in-widely-expected-election-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt\u2019s Sisi secures third term in widely expected election win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has won a third term with 89.6 per cent of the vote in the Arab world\u2019s most populous country, the national election authority said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome of the December 10-12 poll was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1796889\">widely expected<\/a> after the former army chief with a fondness for infrastructure mega-projects campaigned against a small field of relative unknowns.<\/p>\n<p>It secures 69-year-old Sisi his third and, according to the Egyptian constitution, final term in office, starting in April and set to run for six years.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"Egypt\u2019s Economy Faces New Pressures From Gaza Crisis | Dawn News English\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ntY_yHRivxI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>His victory comes despite a painful economic crisis, marked by a currency plunge and runaway household prices, and heightened regional tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas fighting in neighbouring Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Annual inflation is running at 36.4pc, sending up prices of some food staples by the week and hurting household budgets in the country of nearly 106 million.<\/p>\n<p>Even before the current economic crisis, about two-thirds of Egypt\u2019s population lived on or below the poverty line.<\/p>\n<p>A decade-long crackdown on dissent had eliminated any serious competition for Sisi, Egypt\u2019s fifth president to emerge from within the ranks of the military since 1952.<\/p>\n<p>It was the third time in a decade Sisi won a landslide victory, albeit with his smallest margin. In 2014 and 2018, Sisi won over 96pc of the vote.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"retired-field-marshall\" href=\"#retired-field-marshall\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Retired field marshall<\/h2>\n<p>The runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People\u2019s Party, received 4.5pc of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>Next came Farid Zahran, leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party.<\/p>\n<p>The election authority said turnout was \u201cunprecedented\u201d at 66.8pc of 67m registered voters. This was up from 41pc in 2018 and 47pc in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>In much of Cairo, however, the only sign Egypt was holding an election were the ubiquitous campaign posters for Sisi, while banners for other candidates were few and far between.<\/p>\n<p>Several voters told <em>AFP<\/em> they \u201cdid not know the other candidates\u201d, while much of the country ignored the polls entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Sisi, a retired army field marshall, was first voted in as president after leading the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1022551\">overthrow<\/a> of elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>He later extended the presidential mandate from four to six years and amended the constitution to raise the limit on consecutive terms from two to three years.<\/p>\n<p>His administration has overseen the imprisonment of tens of thousands of political opponents as the space for dissent has been progressively curtailed.<\/p>\n<p>The all-but-decimated opposition had built momentum this year before the election before media and public attention were diverted by the Gaza crisis.<\/p>\n<p>For a brief while, some expected the election to include two main opposition figures who \u2014 despite having no real hope of winning \u2014 were intended to highlight dissident voices.<\/p>\n<p>Today, one is in prison and the other is awaiting trial.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"fresh-devaluation\" href=\"#fresh-devaluation\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Fresh devaluation<\/h2>\n<p>When he was first elected, the president\u2019s popularity was dubbed \u201cSisimania\u201d and adoring supporters put his image on everything from baked goods to key chains.<\/p>\n<p>The enthusiasm has ebbed from those highs but Sisi is not without his supporters.<\/p>\n<p>From 2016 onward, he undertook a host of economic reforms in pursuit of loans from the International Monetary Fund that have required severe austerity measures and multiple currency devaluations.<\/p>\n<p>Those policies, coupled with expensive mega projects \u2014 including a $58 billion new capital city in the desert east of Cairo \u2014 have more than tripled Egypt\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n<p>Virtually all imports to Egypt are paid for in dollars, and a severe foreign currency shortage has caused a parallel market to surge and pushed up consumer prices.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly a decade after Sisi first promised Egyptians security and prosperity, the economy is in freefall.<\/p>\n<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Sisi on his \u201cconvincing victory\u201d, according to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>The results are \u201ca clear indication of the widespread recognition of your merits in addressing the pressing socio-economic and foreign policy challenges facing Egypt\u201d, Putin said in a message to Sisi.<\/p>\n<p>The election was initially expected in the spring of 2024. However, experts have said Sisi wanted to secure a third term before enacting another widely anticipated currency devaluation that is expected to fuel public discontent.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has won a third term with 89.6 per cent of the vote in the Arab world\u2019s most populous country, the national election authority said Monday. The outcome of the December 10-12 poll was widely expected after the former army chief with a fondness for infrastructure mega-projects campaigned against a small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/18224343048848a.jpg?r=224511","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}