Emmanuel Parisse -
With his trademark black sunglasses and blanket media presence, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, elected this week to a second-term in office, projects an air of benign paternalism.
Whether the people love or loathe Sisi, see him as a bulwark of stability.
He stormed to victory in the 2014 presidential election, having led the military a year before.
In the run-up to his reelection announced on Thursday, he swept aside all token opposition parties, leaving himself as the main choice on the ballot paper. The sole challenger was the little-known Moussa Mostafa Moussa, himself a supporter of the president, who registered immediately before the close date for applications, saving the election from being a one-horse race. Sisi swept the poll with 92 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results reported by state media.
The former career army officer was born in November 1954 in El-Gamaleya neighbourhood in the heart of Cairo.
He graduated from Egypt’s Military Academy in 1977, later studying in Britain and the United States, before becoming military intelligence chief.
As Egypt’s leader, Sisi is often seen microphone in hand, presiding over public ceremonies. Speaking in the Egyptian Arabic dialect, sometimes laughing in the middle of his own lengthy speeches, he projects an image of father of the nation. He is fond of telling Egyptians that they are the apple of his eye, stressing that he is there only to serve them.
Enjoying near-unanimous media support, Sisi is popular among many Egyptians who see him as the right man to lead the country after years of political, security and economic turmoil.
As the security issues mounted, Sisi launched a military campaign against IS group fighters based in the Sinai Peninsula.
But so far he has been unable to fully quash an insurgency that has killed hundreds of civilians as well as police and troops.
Economically, he has begun an IMF-mandated programme of drastic reforms that include cutting energy subsidies, introducing value-added tax and floating the pound.
During his first presidential campaign in 2014, he said that “talking about freedoms” should not take precedence over “national security”, and that it would take “20 to 25 years to establish a true democracy” in Egypt. — AFP
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