It was not a great surprise when Egypt’s Defence Minister and head of the Armed Forces, Field Marshall Abdul Fattah Al Sissi announced that he was resigning to stand for the presidency. Ever since last July, when he was instrumental in toppling the Muslim Brotherhood government of president Mohammad Mursi, he has been the most likely candidate to take over the presidency. The current interim government redrafted Egypt’s constitution to be more inclusive than the rushed and far too narrow document that Mursi’s government produced, and set up a timetable for presidential and parliamentary elections. The 59-year-old Al Sissi is widely expected to win the vote and restore a tradition of presidents from military background that Egypt has experienced for all but one year since 1952.
The new president will face substantial problems after more than three years of civil chaos since the revolution of the Arab Spring in January 2011. The economy desperately needs a kick-start if only to attract more foreign investment, but it also needs a long-term restructuring to reduce both red tape and crippling subsidies, so as to unleash the power of Egyptian entrepreneurialism. This will require the new president to be both technocratically skilled and politically brave, which will be a real test of Al Sissi’s so-far untested political skills.
The new president will also need to restore a general sense of security after a period of continual turmoil. This will require him to take a political leap and build a much more inclusive Egypt than he may be comfortable with, and certainly more inclusive than was envisaged by Mursi’s Islamist government. There is no denying Al Sissi’s military background, but as president, he will be performing a very different role than as head of the armed forces. In his new role, he will have to answer to all Egyptians and take the political steps to rebuild Egypt’s shattered confidence. It will be a tragedy if he allows the hopes engendered by the new thinking of the Arab Spring to wither and die.
