Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said yesterday he had resigned from his positions as defence minister and army chief and that he would run for the presidency in a forthcoming election that he is expected to win easily.
In a televised statement, Gen Sisi said he could not “perform miracles” and called on Egyptians to work hard to improve their country. The 59-year old who deposed President Mohamed Morsi last year also said Egypt was threatened by terrorists and he would work to make a country “free of fear”.
Gen Sisi has gained cult-like adulation since he toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader in July. Supporters see him as a saviour who can end the political turmoil dogging Egypt since a popular uprising ended Hosni Mubarak’s three decades of one-man rule in 2011. If he becomes president he will become the latest in a line of Egyptian rulers drawn from the military that was only briefly broken during Islamist Mohamed Morsi’s year in office.
Critics fear Gen Sisi will become yet another authoritarian leader who will preserve the interests of the military and the Mubarak-era establishment, crushing the hopes of democracy, reform and social justice aroused by the youthful protests that swept away Gen Mubarak.
Gen Sisi has generated sky-high expectations, but has outlined no detailed solutions for the poverty, energy shortages and unemployment that afflict many of Egypt’s 85 million people. Nor has he quelled an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai peninsula that has intensified since Mr Morsi’s overthrow. – (Reuters)