Army boss Sisi sworn in as Egypt president
Print Edition
ABDEL-FATTAH el-Sisi was sworn in as president yesterday following a landslide election almost a year after he deposed Egypt’s first freely elected leader and crushed his Islamist supporters.
The retired field marshal took the oath of office at the heavily guarded Constitutional Court and then left to attend a reception with foreign dignitaries.
Western countries alarmed by the brutal crackdown on dissent following the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year mostly sent low level representatives to Cairo.
Sisi scored a lopsided victory last month in an election boycotted by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and secular dissidents, also targeted by the army-installed government in the wide-ranging crackdown.
Soldiers and police deployed in force in the capital in anticipation of protests by the battered Brotherhood movement and possible militant attacks.
Elite policemen stood guard outside as helicopters dropped posters of Sisi on dozens of well-wishers who turned up to see the former army commander.
“I’m here to congratulate Sisi, the man who rescued us from terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said one flag-waving supporter, Amira Ahmed.
The presidency said he would later host a reception at Cairo’s Ittihadiya presidential palace, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Arab royals and African leaders in attendance.
Sisi will also sign a transfer of power deal with Adly Mansour, a chief justice whom he installed as interim president when he ousted Morsi on July 3.
Riding a wave of popularity since then, Sisi won the May 26-28 election with 96.9 percent of the vote against his only rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi.
The nature of the victory showed he still enjoyed immense support for his overthrow of the divisive Morsi, after millions held protests demanding an end to the Islamist’s single year of turbulent rule. But the lower than anticipated turnout of about 47 percent denied Sisi the overwhelming mandate he’d called for ahead of the vote.
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