Egyptians to vote Monday, Sisi re-election guaranteed

Many of the pro-Sisi banners carry praise for the relative calm of recent years, following the turmoil unleashed in the wake of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

But with an economic crisis and gruelling price hikes — and the return of a regime seen as at least as authoritative as that of Mubarak — support for Sisi appears to be slightly in decline.

In his first term, Sisi had promised to restore stability, including in the economy.

In 2016, he launched a three-year economic reform programme, part of a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan, which included the floating of the pound, leading to a loss of half of its value and causing prices to soar.

– Crackdown on dissent –

But even as inflation spiked, no public displays of protest were witnessed under Sisi, who has led a wide crackdown on dissent since taking office.

Sisi, the fifth president to hail from the military since the monarchy was overthrown in 1952, was elected president a year after leading the military ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, amid mass protests against him.

Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2012, in the first vote after Mubarak’s ouster.

But after year of divisive rule, with many Egyptians concerned about rising Islamist leanings in government, mass protests took place against him across the country, and Sisi, then head of the army, announced his ouster after an ultimatum for Morsi to call early elections.

Hundreds of Morsi’s supporters were killed in the August 2013 dispersal of two protest camps in Cairo, and thousands were arrested — including Morsi himself — and sent to mass trial in procedures condemned by the United Nations.

A year later, a popular Sisi was elected as president, with the initial crackdown on Morsi’s supporters expanded to include liberal and leftist secular activists.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 30 journalists are currently imprisoned in Egypt. Nearly 500 websites are also blocked, while art is subject to rising censorship.