Al-Sisi Says He May Run for a Second Term in Office

During an interview with the editors-in-chief of the state-run Egyptian newspapers Al-Ahram, Al-Gomhuria, and Akhbar Al-Youm, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said that he may run for a second term in office, said Anadolu Agency.

When he was asked about the possibility of running for re-election in 2018, al-Sisi said he will do “if it is the will of the Egyptian people”. He said, “I can never fail to respond to the will of Egyptians. I am subject to the will of the Egyptian people.”

Al-Sisi, Egypt’s former Defense Minister, who led a military coup against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president in a 2013 coup, was elected as a president in mid-2014, nearly one year after his military coup . His term will end in 2018 and he can run for a second four-year term according to the Egyptian constitution.

A recent field study for the Egyptian Center for Media and Public Opinion Takamol Masr found that 74% of the Egyptians refuse the continuation of the al-Sisi regime while 11% only wanted the regime to continue and 15%  don’t care about what is happening on the Egyptian scene.

The rejection of the al-Sisi regime is high within the age categories that are less than 40 reaching 81%, and it is relatively close for both males and females, according to the “Takamol Masr” study.

The field study was conducted over three days on July 27,28 and 29 , 2016.

The sample taken was based on a stratified random method for 4615 samples distributed on Egypt’s governorates according to their population density. The gender, age, the standard of living, and the education criteria were taken into consideration in taking the samples.

Recently, The Economist has highlighted al-Sisi as the one who is responsible for the ruining of Egypt in its editorial titled: The Ruining of Egypt…Repression and the incompetence of al-Sisi are stoking the second uprising.”

The magazine said at the end of its editorial that the demographic, economic and social pressures in Egypt are relentlessly increasing and that al-Sisi is incapable of providing the sustainable stability to Egypt, the political regime also needs to be reopened.

The magazine considered al-Sisi’s withdrawal from the political life as the hope gate for Egypt. The Economist continued saying, “Egypt’s political system needs to be reopened. A good place to start would be for al-Sisi to announce that he will not stand again for election in 2018.”

In the same context, Researcher Michele Dunne has repeated the advice that was given by The Economist in one of its editorials calling al-Sisi not to run for the 2018 presidential elections. Dunne, the researcher at Carnegie, wrote on her twitter account,” Suggestion from The Economist: al-Sisi should announce now he will not run in 2018, to allow politics to re-emerge.”

The field study results, as well as the Economist editorial, came in parallel with a petition signed for re-electing al-Sisi in 2018, the petition aims to collect 40 million signatures. (A similar move was conducted by “Tamarud” movement, supported by the army, when they planned to topple Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2013. At the time, it was announced that Tamarud was collecting millions of signatures against Morsi. Also, Tamraud received financial support from the UAE via the Egyptian army, according to leaks circulated on the media, allegedly from Al-Sisi’s office).