The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday disqualified the results of the elections in Egypt due to the campaign of arrests and intimidation prior to their celebration, as well as the requirements demanded of candidates to be able to run. As a result, the re-elected president Abdul Fatah al Sisi faced no serious rivals and won the elections with 89.6% of the votes counted, the authorities announced yesterday. The elections were held between December 10 and 12.
Al Sisi will assume a third term at the head of a country that has its greatest risks in an economic crisis that has lasted for years and in the danger that the Gaza war will spread to its territory through the border region of the Sinai, a peninsula in which insurgent militias still operate.
Some voters said the outbreak of conflict in Gaza had encouraged them to vote for Sisi, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region, an argument that has also proven effective with allies in the Persian Gulf and West that provide financial support to their Government. Others, however, showed indifference to a predictable result.
Voting in Egypt took place over three days, from December 10 to 12, and the state and the heavily controlled national media pushed hard to increase turnout above the 41% recorded in the last presidential election in 2018. .
As Reuters journalists witnessed, some voters were transported by bus to the polling stations and bags of food were distributed, while others claimed that they were pressured by their employers to vote. Egypt's state media body said the vote was a step toward political pluralism and authorities have denied violations of electoral rules.
Three other candidates ran for election, none of them high profile. The most prominent potential candidate withdrew from his candidacy in October, alleging that authorities and some thugs had attacked his supporters, accusations dismissed by the National Electoral Authority.
"There were no elections, Al Sisi used the entire state apparatus and security agencies to prevent any serious contender from even running," said the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an independent group, Hossam Bahgat. "Just like last time, he picked his opponents, who only went through the formalities of running against the president with silent or almost no criticism of his disastrous policies," he added.
