Egypt presidential elections 2023: Who are the key candidates in fray?

Egypt is all set to hold presidential elections over three days starting Sunday (10 December). Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is running for a third term and is expected to return to power.

Egyptians living abroad have already voted between 1-3 December.

The Arab world’s most populous nation will go to the ballot in the wake of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Egypt is in control of the sole border crossing to the Gaza Strip that is not run by Israel.

After a prominent left-wing contender – Ahmad Tantawi – against Sisi pulled out from the race in October, only three other candidates are in the fray.

Who are the key candidates in the Egyptian presidential elections? Let’s take a closer look.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Sisi, 68, is running as an independent candidate. Once a general in the Egyptian army, he came to power in a coup against the democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

Sisi was minister of defence between 2012-2013 and director of military intelligence and reconnaissance between 2010-2012. He resigned from the armed forces in 2014 to run for president.

He was announced victor with 97 per cent of the vote, becoming Egypt’s eighth president, and secured a second term four years later with the same margin of victory.

Sisi’s almost ten-year rule has been marked by a crackdown on dissent across the political spectrum.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has labelled Egypt “one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists”. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Sisi’s government has imprionsed critics and intimidated any possible candidates who were considered a threat, reported Al Jazeera.

Egypt, which has a population of 106 million, has faced an economic crisis since 2011. The country’s economic troubles have further worsened under Sisi.

The Arab country, which is the world’s biggest importer of wheat, is also bearing the brunt of the war between Ukraine and Russia, its main suppliers. Rising prices have made even essentials like bread unaffordable for many.

The Egyptian government’s spending on mega-projects in the last decade has also hit the country’s coffers hard, tripling its debt to a record $165 billion, as per AFP.

Despite the problems, Sisi is likely to return to power by a landslide margin.

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Farid Zahran

A veteran politician and leftist opposition figure, Farid Zahran, 66, heads the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.

Zahran has long been involved in co-founding political movements and coalitions including the 1970s student movement, the Kifaya (Enough) movement that protested against Egypt’s late former president Hosni Mubarak’s rule from 2004, and the Civil Democratic Movement formed in 2017 to support democracy and social justice.

Zahran says he prioritises limiting state ownership of economic assets to major strategic projects such as the Suez Canal Authority, Egypt’s aluminum company and the electricity, water and sewage companies.

Abdel Sanad Yamama

Abdel Sanad Yamama, 71, is a lawyer and professor of international law who is the presidential candidate for Wafd, Egypt’s oldest liberal party.

Yamama has said he would like to impose a limit of two four-year terms for the president. “It is impossible, psychologically or physically for a president of a country with Egypt’s problems to bear remaining in office for 16 years,” he has said.

Yamama also supports constitutional amendments with a focus on rights, freedoms and economic reform that he says would allow for “a free economy”.

Hazem Omar

At 59, the former chair of the Egyptian Senate’s foreign affairs committee and head of the Republican Peoples’ Party Hazem Omar is the youngest candidate in the race.

The businessman-turned-politician is campaigning under the slogan “Together we’ll make a change” and says he intends to prioritise healthcare and educational reform as he believes these are the core priorities of citizens.

He has also called for a focus on local economic growth and agriculture, energy and trade, at a time when the economy has been hit by a long-running foreign currency shortage and near-record inflation.

With inputs from Reuters