There’s only one winner in Egypt’s sham election

After three days of voting, the polls close today in Egypt’s presidential elections. The result is expected on 18 December, but voters already know there can be only one winner: president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been in power for nearly a decade. The other candidates for the presidency (those permitted to stand against him) aren’t really running to win but are simply there to make up the numbers and help create the impression that voters are being offered a choice. This sham of an electoral process reveals much about Sisi’s iron grip on the country and its main organs of state, including the much-feared security services.

After seizing power in a military coup in 2013, Sisi won two presidential elections in 2014 and 2018, both with 97 per cent of the vote. These astonishing numbers are hardly surprising given what happens at election time in Egypt. In the 2018 election, the only other candidate standing – Moussa Mostafa Moussa – openly supported Sisi’s rule.