The former marshal Abdel Fattah al Sisi achieved an electoral victory this Monday overwhelming by winning with 89.6% of the votes, compared to the 97% he obtained in the previous presidential elections, in 2018, which will allow him to lead Egypt for six more years. In a speech after being proclaimed the winner, Al Sisi promised citizens to continue building “the new Egyptian republic” in the face of the great “challenges” that the country is going through, including the consequences of the serious economic crisis and the war in the Gaza Strip.

In a packed room, the head of Egypt’s National Electoral Authority (NEA), Hazem Badawi, announced that Al Sisi received 39,702,451 votes (89.6%), which unleashed a wave of applause among the public. Badawi has assured that these elections are the ones that have had “the largest participation in history in Egypt”, with 66.8% of the census, which means that 44,777,668 people went to the polls, of the 67,032,438 with the right to vote. One of the biggest concerns of the Egyptian authorities was participation, given that in 2018 it was only 41%.

Of the registered votes, 1.1% were counted as invalid, Badawi indicated. At the hearing, the head of the ANE pointed out that “all categories of society participated” in these elections, in which there were no “infractions.” “It is the lowest percentage of expenses in electoral campaigns and an unprecedented neutrality,” he stressed. In 2017, Al Sisi assured that he would only remain in power for two termsbut in 2019 he promoted a controversial reform of the Constitution to continue leading the country until 2030year from which he will no longer be able to run in elections, initially.

The shadow of bribes

These elections are the first since Al Sisi came to power in 2014 in which four candidates of different stripes competed, but the former marshal’s rivals were practically unknown to the population. In these elections, the second most voted candidate It was Hazem Omar, of the Republican Popular Party (RPP), with 1,986,352 (4.5%). Omar was followed by Farid Zahran, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (PES), with 1,776,952 votes (4%), and the last place went to Abdel Sanad Yamama, head of the Wafd Party, with 822,606 (1.9%).

Although the electoral commission says there have been no violations, the observer teams of two of Al Sisi’s contenders assured EFE that parties related to the president “bribed” people with money and food to go to the polling stations, among other types of irregularities already recorded in previous elections. These elections have been marked by the fear of a possible displacement of Palestinians to Egypt from Gaza, but also by the general discontent of the population in the face of the severe economic crisis that the country is going through, marked by an official inflation of almost 40% and the loss of value of more than half of the Egyptian pound.

In fact, these elections were scheduled for 2024, but were brought forward in view of the severe and unpopular measures that the Government will have to take to alleviate the crisis and comply with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Regarding the Gaza war, in which Egypt is one of the mediators along with Qatar and the United States, Al Sisi, 69, stated that the Egyptian populationhas not only voted in the elections for him, but also for the Palestinian cause.

Who is Al Sisi, the re-elected president of Egypt?

Al Sisi came to power in 2013 with a coup d’état against the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was imprisoned. For more than a month, Morsi’s supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but to no avail: the military regime opened fired on protesters and killed more than 600 people.

Since then, anyone criticize the power of Al Sisi or the Army and risk being imprisoned and, according to human rights organizations, there are currently around 60,000 political prisoners in Egyptian prisons.