Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the defense minister that ousted the country’s first elected president in a popularly supported coup in 2013, once promised to stick to the two four-year terms mandated in Egypt’s young constitution. But, like so many strongmen before him, he has sought to circumvent that limit and has now been granted a third.
On Tuesday, the country’s election authorities announced that Egyptians had voted to pass a number of major changes to the country’s constitution in a three-day referendum, with 88.83% voting in favor of tightening its strongman leader’s grip on power.
Terms have also been extended to six years, meaning Sisi could rule until 2030.
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Since taking office, he has imprisoned almost all of his potential rivals, including the country’s former military chief of staff. He has expanded his powers over monitoring bodies, and his security agencies have crushed political dissent. Most opposing voices are now in prison, under strict probation, in exile, missing, or dead. Hundreds of websites are blocked in Egypt, including that of the campaign for a “no” vote in this constitutional referendum.
There is an inescapable sense that this chapter in Egypt’s history, which opened with such hope, has now come to the worst of ends.
Source: Egypt’s era of hope has ended
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