From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Arrests and Handouts: How Egypt’s Sisi Is Engineering Another Election   
   Victory   
   By Chao Deng, Oct. 3, 2023, WSJ   
   CAIRO—As Egypt prepares for a presidential election, authorities have   
   detained dozens of opposition figures. Potential challengers to President   
   Abdel Fattah Al Sisi say they are facing obstacles getting on the ballot. And   
   some Egyptians have received    
   food vouchers in exchange for their support.   
      
   Sisi, the 68-year-old general who came to power in a military coup a decade   
   ago and this week announced his intention to run again, is seeking to bolster   
   his standing amid a crippled economy, double-digit inflation, soaring national   
   debt and a reduction    
   in aid from the U.S.   
      
   The stakes for the just-called December poll are high, even for an autocrat   
   known for winning elections by crushing margins—including with 97% of the   
   vote in 2018. The president is now in the most challenging moment of his rule,   
   as food inflation above    
   70% overwhelms his base of working-class Egyptians, leading to rare public   
   criticism from people previously loyal to the regime and a sense among the   
   opposition that his position is precarious.   
      
   A third term would cement Sisi’s position for another six years, potentially   
   buying him time to prolong his term further by enacting laws, as he has done   
   in the past.   
      
   Late Monday, Sisi announced his candidacy at a conference celebrating his   
   record at the new administrative capital, a large construction project begun   
   under his leadership that has added to the government’s debt pile.   
      
   “I have resolved to nominate myself for you [the people],” Sisi said, to   
   loud cheers from his supporters amid fireworks and a light show.   
      
   U.S. lawmakers recently withheld $235 million in American aid to Egypt over   
   its human-rights record and lapse in the rule of law. Sisi’s reliability as   
   a U.S. ally has also come into question since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,   
   with Cairo considering    
   sending Moscow ammunition for the war.    
      
   Sisi’s term was set to end in April and a vote was expected next year, but   
   political analysts said the election authority moved polling up to ensure his   
   re-election before authorities enact economic policies that would spell more   
   financial pain for    
   average Egyptians. Among the expected changes: a devaluation of the local   
   pound that will further reduce people’s purchasing power.   
      
   Opposition politicians have accused some prospective candidates of cutting   
   deals with the Sisi regime to help him hold on to power. Two presidential   
   aspirants said they have been trying for more than a week to garner the tens   
   of thousands of popular    
   endorsements needed to qualify as a candidate. But they say they have faced   
   physical obstruction from both police and plainclothes security officials, as   
   well as from people professing to support Sisi.    
      
   “All security agencies, the media and station institutions are working for   
   the interest of one candidate: the president,” said Mohamed Lotfy, executive   
   director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom, a rights group.   
   “Any election that    
   involves Sisi as a candidate won’t be free and fair.”   
      
   A spokesman for the president referred questions to the National Elections   
   Authority, which didn’t respond to a request for comment.   
      
   The NEA said in a statement on its Facebook account Sunday that it had fixed   
   unspecified “technical issues” at a few government notary offices managing   
   endorsement submissions; it also said it extended working hours to address   
   overcrowding.   
      
   Sisi was put in power in 2013 after the Egyptian military overthrew a   
   democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood leader. Nearly a year later, he won   
   the presidency by a landslide. He was re-elected in a 2018 vote that sidelined   
   all of his serious    
   opponents before he then lengthened the executive term-limit, enabling him to   
   extend his time in office by two years to 2024.   
      
   Ahmed Tantawi, a journalist and former lawmaker who is seen as the most   
   credible challenger to Sisi, has faced the most harassment according to   
   activists, and hasn’t so far got the endorsements needed. More than 80   
   members of his campaign have been    
   arrested in recent weeks.   
      
   Crowds of Tantawi supporters gathered at one government registry in Cairo on   
   Tuesday, with some yelling at staff members for blocking their attempts to   
   endorse him. “You will all be held accountable for this!” shouted Mohamed   
   Khamis, a 21-year-old    
   vocational college student.   
      
   Others at the registry were wary of getting detained, but spoke openly about   
   the challenges of submitting their name to endorse their preferred candidate.   
   “The first time I came, I saw a Tantawi supporter get beaten up,” said   
   Yasmine Nader, a 30-year-   
   old former schoolteacher, who only learned about Tantawi a few weeks ago via   
   social media, and has tried repeatedly to endorse him.    
      
   “The next two times, we were told the system was down and we weren’t able   
   to write down our names,” she said. Her fourth attempt Tuesday also failed.   
      
   By midday, Tantawi’s supporters were outnumbered by crowds of middle-aged   
   Egyptian women who arrived by bus, professing their support for Sisi. A group   
   of men blasted nationalist music across the street, waving Sisi banners.   
      
   The regime has also organized rallies in Cairo and other major cities and two   
   pro-Sisi parties have put on events featuring football and music stars.   
   Slogans chanted included “Long Live Egypt” and “We Love You, Sisi.”   
      
   Government employees are pressured to attend and even forced to turn over   
   their national IDs to endorse Sisi, says Hanan Tantawi, a pharmacologist at   
   state-owned National Research Center in Cairo. “It’s happened at some   
   departments at my institute.”   
      
   The NRC couldn’t immediately be reached to comment.   
      
   On Monday, at a performance advertised by the pro-Sisi Nation’s Future Party   
   as celebrating the coming anniversary of Egypt’s 1973 war with Israel, one   
   woman working as a housekeeper said that she and most others around her were   
   attending for “   
   money and benefits” without elaborating.    
      
   “We are poor people—we care about feeding out children and nothing   
   more,” she said, declining to share her name. “They are taking us from our   
   homes to attend this.”   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/world/arrests-and-handouts-how-egypts-sisi-i   
   -engineering-another-election-victory-3eccb0a4   
      
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