Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Elections in Egypt

By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:

The Egyptian campaign for presidency officially opened this week, the vote will take place from March 26th to 28th.

The incumbent Abdel Fattah al Sisi is the overwhelming favorite. Al Sisi came to power in 2013 when, as head of the army, he ousted the first ever duly elected president of Egypt - Mohammed Morsi, who was from the Muslim Brotherhood. A year later elections cemented al Sisi's position.

Now it is time for new elections. All the opposition candidates have either withdrawn or been arrested, except for one candidate and he is a relative unknown who backed al Sisi in the previous vote. One of the arrested candidates was the head of the army who announced his candidacy while still officially in the army - a clear violation of the law but ironic at the same time.

Sisi has been criticized for being too harsh on terror and on his political enemies. He has hit back hard against the press and there have been warnings and even arrests about "false news" that maligns Egypt. The chief prosecutor has called for vigilance in the media and charged his team to scour the media against "forces of evil" trying to influence the vote.

All members of government have been warned against trying to influence the election in any way.

Micah@MicahHalpern.com

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