Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi – who is 68 years old, has been in office since 2014 and is currently in his second term – has announced that he will run in the next presidential elections, which will be between 10 and 12 December 2023, a few months earlier than previously assumed. Sisi’s candidacy is not particularly surprising, even if until now the president had never publicly expressed his intention to run for a third term.
Over the years, Sisi has transformed Egypt into an increasingly authoritarian country. In 2018 he was re-elected in a vote that was considered a kind of farce, both because the opposition had asked to boycott the elections and because several rival candidates of al Sisi had been forced to withdraw.
The law allows Sisi to run for a third term, and winning the election would allow him to remain president until 2030, as required by the amendment to the Constitution approved in a referendum in 2019. The national electoral authority said it expected the results of the first round are communicated by December 23rd. In the event of an unlikely run-off, the second round would be held by January 16, 2024.
