“Egypt can fit us all with all our differences. Accepting others and creating common ground will be important for us in order to create
political development,” he told MPs who gathered to witness his oath of office, following a ceremony heavy on military pomp.
Some interrupted his speech to shout their admiration of the president, including one MP who recited a poem of praise.
Sisi won more than 97% of votes in the March election, which international and Egyptian rights organisations denounced as “farcical” after five opposition candidates were barred from running. His only opponent was Moussa Moustafa Moussa, an avowed supporter of the president.
Sisi’s inauguration follows a renewed crackdown on even the most benign opposition to his rule. In recent weeks, at least six prominent dissidents have been arrested and detained in pre-dawn raids. Twenty-two people protesting a fare hike on the Cairo metro were arrested and investigated on terrorism charges, including joining a banned group.
As Sisi took oath of office, the arrests of recent weeks indicated that his second term may allow even less space for dissent than his first.
Since coming to power in 2013, Sisi’s rule has been marked by efforts to crush all forms of dissent, with his government targeting Islamists, critics, activists, human rights organisations and journalists.
But with almost no public opposition remaining, he is working to shore up support within an already compliant system.
More than 200 MPs in Egypt’s rubber-stamp parliament have switched allegiances to a new political party, Future of the Homeland, founded to support Sisi and drawing comparisons with the corrupt National Democratic Party of deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Its creation is a possible precursor to an anticipated referendum which would alter the constitution to extend presidential terms, removing limits and allowing Sisi to become “president for life”.
The opulent inauguration followed a wave of arrests of dissidents including the blogger Wael Abbas, labour lawyer and socialist activist Haytham Mohamadeen, satirist Shady Abu Zeid, activist Shady al-Ghazaly Harb and outspoken former Sisi supporter Hazem Abd al-Azim. It also includes activist Amal Fathy, who made a video discussing sexual harassment in Egypt.
“Sisi is expecting a turbulent second mandate so he needs the opposition forces to be under control while unchecked voices are silenced,” said Fathy’s husband, Mohamed Lotfy, the head of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
The French journalist Nina Hubinet earlier this week said she had been barred from entering Egypt after arriving in Cairo for a holiday five years after she last reported from there. In February, Egypt arrested and deported British journalist Bel Trew, a correspondent for the Times.
Electricity and fuel prices are expected to rise by 55% and 60% respectively in the upcoming budget in July, generating further discontent among Egypt’s poorest, already struggling to cope with the price hikes of Sisi’s first term. But analysts say the government’s increasingly draconian tactics prevent many from expressing their discontent.
“The inequality of growth is stark and the situation of most Egyptians is still quite dire,” said Michael Hanna, an analyst with the New York thinktank The Century Foundation.
“We can say very clearly that there’s not going to be a course correction. There’s no sense in which [Sisi’s] second term engenders a political easing. The ratchet is going only in one direction,” he said.
(THE REUTERS)
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