Sisi Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election, Says War in Gaza Is Threat to National Security

18 December 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a speech following the announcement of the results of the Egyptian presidential elections. (Egyptian President Office/dpa)
18 December 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a speech following the announcement of the results of the Egyptian presidential elections. (Egyptian President Office/dpa)
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Sisi Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election, Says War in Gaza Is Threat to National Security

18 December 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a speech following the announcement of the results of the Egyptian presidential elections. (Egyptian President Office/dpa)
18 December 2023, Egypt, Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a speech following the announcement of the results of the Egyptian presidential elections. (Egyptian President Office/dpa)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won reelection to a third, six-year term in office, election authorities announced Monday. He ran against three opponents.

Sisi recorded a landslide victory, securing 89.6% of the vote, the National Election Authority said. Turnout was 66.8% of more than 67 million registered voters.

“The voting percentage is the highest in the history of Egypt,” declared Hazem Badawy, the election commission chief, who announced the official results in a televised news conference.

The vote was overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Egypt’s eastern border, which has threatened to expand into wider regional turmoil.

Sisi said on Monday that the war is a threat to national security.

"This ongoing war on our eastern borders, which calls for the mobilization of all our efforts to prevent its continuation, represents a threat to Egyptian national security in particular and to the Palestinian cause in general," Sisi said in a televised speech after winning the election.

Egypt is also in the midst of an economic crisis, with monthly inflation surging above 30%. Over the past 22 months, the Egypt pound has lost 50% of value against the dollar with one third of the country's 105 million people already living in poverty, according to official figures.

The economy has also been hurt by the wider repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, which rattled the global market.

Sisi was first elected as president in mid-2014, then reelected in 2018. A year later, constitutional amendments, passed in a general referendum, added two years to Sisi's second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term.

His three opponents were marginal political figures who were rarely seen during the election campaign.

Hazem Omar, head of the Republican People’s Party, came second with 4.5% of the vote, followed by Farid Zahran, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party with 4%. Abdel-Sanad Yamama, chairman of the Wafd Party, received less than 2% of the vote.

In the months prior to the election, Sisi vowed to address the country's economy.

Sisi’s government initiated an ambitious IMF-backed reform program in 2016, but the austerity measures sent prices soaring, exacting a heavy toll on ordinary Egyptians.

Last December, the government secured a second IMF deal on the promise of implementing economic reforms, including a floating exchange rate. The cost of basic goods have since jumped, particularly imports.



Syria’s Al-Sharaa Says No to Arms Outside State Control

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Says No to Arms Outside State Control

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeing with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said his administration would announce the new structure of the defense ministry and military within days.

In a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday, al-Sharaa said that his administration would not allow for arms outside the control of the state.

An official source told Reuters on Saturday that Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, had been named as defense minister in the interim government.
Sharaa did not mention the appointment of a new defense minister on Sunday.
Sharaa discussed the form military institutions would take during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA said.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said last week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former opposition factions and officers who defected from Assad's army.

Earlier Sunday, Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks with al-Sharaa in Damascus.

Jumblatt expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he added.