The National Election Authority (NEA) announced this week that four candidates will be officially running in the presidential elections in December after they made it through all the previous stages allowing them to run.
Incumbent President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi will face challenges from three candidates: Farid Zahran, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party, Abdel-Sanad Yamama, head of the country’s oldest liberal Wafd Party, and Hazem Omar, head of the People’s Republican Party.
On 8 November the NEA allowed the four candidates to launch a maximum of one month of electoral campaigns. Every candidate has been allocated an electoral symbol. Al-Sisi, seeking a third term that would extend his tenure until 2030, chose the star as his symbol while Zahran selected the sun. Yamama picked the palm tree and Omar the ladder.
Each of the four candidates has been allowed to open a bank account at one of two of Egypt’s biggest national banks — Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt — for campaign expenses.
The NEA said it will monitor the deposits made into each candidate’s bank account and the donations received for their respective campaigns, provided that no one spends over LE20 million ($650,000) and LE5 million in case a runoff is held.
Though campaigning for the 8 December presidential elections officially began last Friday, the streets of Cairo and other major cities and towns were already festooned with posters and streamers. The two political parties which have majorities in the two houses of parliament, Mostaqbal Watan and Humat Watan, held public rallies announcing their support for the re-election of Al-Sisi.
Al-Sisi’s election campaign held a press conference to announce its upcoming steps. According to campaign manager Mahmoud Fawzi, President Al-Sisi urged his supporters not to spend much on his election campaign. “President Al-Sisi decided that donations to his campaign be instead directed to institutions and organisations which send humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza which is facing a bloody war with Israel,” Fawzi said.
Fawzi, however, indicated that the fact that the war in Gaza has dominated the political scene does not mean that presidential elections should be postponed. “We are sorry about the war in Gaza, but the war is not posing any threat to internal stability in Egypt,” Fawzi said.
He added that December’s presidential election is “a constitutional obligation that should be met” and that it is “another move towards democratic rule”.
Fawzi urged the media to distinguish between Al-Sisi as president of Egypt and Al-Sisi as presidential candidate so that Al-Sisi’s presidential and governmental activities are not used to serve his election campaign.
Responding to a question on how the economic crisis currently hitting Egypt might affect Al-Sisi’s chances of success in the election, Fawzi said “the campaign feels optimistic that the economic crisis will be over very soon as the most difficult part of this crisis is already over and we are now ready for a strong economic take-off.”
In the coming stage, Fawzi said, there is a need to focus on industrialisation, reducing imports and boosting exports. As for high inflation, Fawzi said the way to fight it was to double production to curb prices and stabilise the market.
Asked whether Al-Sisi will present an electoral platform, Fawzi said leaders present visions, not programmes. “I think all know that President Al-Sisi is not running for the first time, and that this has created a direct personal relationship between the president and the Egyptian people.”
Besides, added Fawzi, the campaign held 57 meetings with delegations from all institutions and with national experts from all fields.
The campaign also received 1,600 visitors at the official campaign’s headquarters in New Cairo, and met with representatives from 50 political parties, 20 unions, and youth entities.
Fawzi contended that the economic crisis should not be a reason to spread despair and pessimism. “We admit there is a crisis, but this should not dominate the whole picture, and we should compare between where we were and where we are now,” said Fawzi, adding that “when President Al-Sisi came to office in 2014 there was chaos, instability, terrorism, and many economic crises. But this has completely changed and now we stand on solid ground because of internal stability, economic progress, and robust infrastructure.”
Two presidential candidates also held press conferences to kick off their election campaigns. Leftist candidate Zahran, head of the opposition Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, said if he wins the election, he will announce 51 decisions that he will take in his first 100 days in office. “The first of these is that I will form a new government to be headed by a prominent political figure while ministers will constitute a group of highly efficient economic and political experts,” said Zahran, adding that “the second decision is the government declaring a renaissance programme that will change the face of Egypt in industrial, agricultural, service, social, and cultural terms.”
Zahran said there will be a new strategy for fighting inflation and boosting investments in order to help the country extricate itself from its economic crisis as soon as possible.
Zahran also indicated that he would call for an emergency Arab summit to both support the Palestinians in the face of Israel’s war and to create economic integration among Arab countries.
Zahran said he received the support of the Reform and Development Party led by Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat and the Adl (Justice) Party led by Abdel-Moneim Imam. Zahran, however, was not endorsed by the Civilian Democratic Movement (including an alliance of nine liberal and leftist political parties) led by leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi who said the ballot lacks free competition and so will be a foregone conclusion.
Candidate Yamama, head of the Wafd Party, said in a press conference on 9 November that his election platform adopts sweeping political, economic, and legislative reforms. Yamama said he was against the constitutional amendments passed in 2019, and that these should be changed to pave the way for a true and genuine political reform. “We can’t introduce economic reform without adopting political reform first,” said Yamama, adding that he intends to change most economic legislation to create a more investment friendly climate. At the same time, he said economic reforms will also focus on reducing imports, boosting exports, localising industries, and stopping the policy of foreign borrowing.
Candidate Omar, head of the Republican People’s Party, said he would hold a press conference next Friday to announce his detailed election platform.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 16 November, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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