No room for debate as Egypt’s Sisi poised for second term

– ‘It’s existential’ –

Sadat said Sisi would probably have won even with Shafiq and Anan in the race. But the authorities were not keen on debates.

“Perhaps the concern was if there were real candidates there could have been debate on their priorities, there would have been a discussion, and I think they didn’t want one in the current period,” he said.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, said the government’s approach was “one of zero tolerance”.

“The Sisi regime is not going to allow space that could allow political forces to grow and gain confidence,” he said.

Sisi and his supporters often portray Egypt as a victim of a foreign plot. Its agents, according to this theory, could include anything from Islamic State jihadists to foreign-funded civil society groups or foreign media outlets.

Following Morsi’s ouster and a bloody crackdown on his supporters that killed and jailed hundreds, wiping out the Muslim Brotherhood movement as a political force, Washington sanctioned Egypt by temporarily suspending military aid.

Such international censure against crackdowns on dissidents or civil society groups have little effect on Sisi, a former Barack Obama administration official said.

“They believe the state will collapse,” she said, on condition of anonymity.

“It’s existential for them. Almost anything can be sacrificed (to prevent that outcome). In that situation it is very hard to imagine the external leverage that would be sufficient.”