Egyptian President Sisi likely to contest 2022 elections?

In Egypt, supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have begun mulling the idea of keeping him in office beyond his second term in 2022.

In March 2018, Sisi’s supporters re-elected him with more than 97 percent of votes to retain his candidature.

In Cairo, the government’s daily Al-Akhbar newspaper set the tone by referring to 2019 as ‘‘the year of political reforms that lagged’‘ in its editorial on Sunday.

Director of the newspaper, Yasser Rizk said this reform should ‘’ preserve all that has been achieved of the population in terms of security stability and economic recovery over the past five years’‘.

According to the editorial, the amendment of the constitution must be voted on by parliament at its next session before the end of summer this year.

The proposal to maintain Sisi as a presidential candidate for the 2022 elections in Egypt has been criticised by opponents and NGOs who took to social networks to express their dissatisfaction.

Sisi was first elected President in 2014, a year after the army’s dismissal of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Sisi won a second term in 2018 and is in charge of a regime considered authoritarian and repressive on his opponents and human rights defenders.

AFP