The Egyptian Presidential Elections - 2018

The Egyptian presidential elections started on the 26 ^the of March and ended on the 28^th of March.

The Election Committee stated that as of March 28^th more than 25 million Egyptians casted their voted. President El Sissi received 92% of the votes.

It was reported that during the election more than 650 foreign journalists were present, in addition to 65 foreign observers were allowed to watch the voters during the election. Not a single violation was reported.

Prior to the elections, negative publicity has been circulating, and there were false anticipation which can be attributed to the following factors:

1.   As is the case in all societies, you always find opportunists who have no loyalty or attachment to their country, and hope for negative consequences. For example, there are 104 registered political parties. Some members of those parties ran in previous elections, and Egyptians ignored them completely. The public has no confidence in those parties. On the other hand, most Egyptians support and trust the army, a feeling that has prevailed since Mohamed Ali, the ruler of Egypt 200 year ago, and who created the first army composed of Egyptians. Hence, the pessimist minority, who did their best to discourage Egyptians from participating in the election, have failed. The jubilation of the public among those who participated in the election was a reflection of the Egyptians’ enthusiasm in taking part in this election.

2.   In spite of the fact that more than one third of the Egyptian public are illiterate, their political awareness is amazing. This was apparent in the TV interviews conducted by journalists in different part of the country and broadcasted instantly. Most of the people interviewed were aware of the progress accomplished by president El Sissi’s government during the past four years. The economic hardship people were experiencing did not dampen their enthusiasm.

During my visit this year to Egypt (January-February 2018) some Egyptians, I talked to, said “Egypt is experiencing some difficulties during this transitional period, but the situations will be better in the near future.” For example, the economy is growing at the impressive rate of 5.2%/year. This rate of growth was confirmed by the International Bank. Other achievements are reflected in the large amount of foreign investments and in the constructions of many factories all over Egypt. In addition, there was great improvements of the infrastructures. Thousands of kilometers of paved new roads bridges were constructed, as well as the renovations and building of the sewage systems. Millions of new dwelling units, new towns, new hospital were build. The production of electrical power has exceeded 26,000 Mega Watt. Furthermore, the Egyptian government is focusing on the construction of large sun panels, and passive wind fan for the production of energy. The Suez canal project, which was constructed in one year, created a two ways traffic. This has cut on the number of hours ships had to wait to enter the canal. All of the above accomplishments in the past four years, is not only impressive, but is paying off. The public is aware of the government’s achievements and was eager to vote for a second term for El Sissi. Actually, some Egyptian scholars interviewed on TV recently, stated that a total of eight years for El Sissi is not enough to complete his futuristic plans for Egypt.

The majority of the public in Egypt are aware of El Sissi accomplishments. But, Western powers, more specifically Western media and more specifically American, are ignoring the economic progress in Egypt. They have a negative attitude towards Egypt. In general, the Western mass media has lost its objectivity reporting about Egypt.