Enter the leader: Sisi sworn in as Egypt president

Says it is time for the people ‘to obtain fruits of their two revolutions’.

CAIRO: Abdel Fattah al Sisi was sworn in as Egypt’s president on Sunday following a landslide election victory almost a year after he deposed the country’s first freely elected leader and crushed his supporters. The ex-army chief became the country’s second elected president since a popular uprising overthrew strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011, unleashing more than three years of unrest.

Western countries alarmed by the brutal crackdown on dissent following Sisi’s ousting of president Mohamed Mursi mostly sent low-level representatives to his inauguration. In a speech to Arab royals, foreign dignitaries and Egyptian public figures at the presidential palace, Sisi said it was time “for our great people to obtain the fruits of their two revolutions”.



“The time has come to build a more stable future,” he said, after signing a power transfer with outgoing interim president Adly Mansour, a chief justice.

The ceremony, attended by Egyptian public figures as well as foreign dignitaries who lined up to shake Sisi’s hand, appeared choreographed to display regional support for Sisi.

Many Egyptians view Sisi as the leader best suited to restoring stability and he scored a lopsided victory in a vote boycotted by Muslim Brotherhood and secular dissidents.

Earlier, Sisi took his oath at the Constitutional Court, next to the hospital where his elderly predecessor Mubarak is being detained after being convicted of corruption. Riding a wave of popularity since Mursi’s overthrow, Sisi won the May 26-28 election with 96.9 per cent of the vote against his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who opposed Mursi’s Brotherhood, called for a donor conference to help Egypt after the results were announced.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2014.