Egypt's Sisi declares his presidency will end in 2030
Departure announced more than 40 months early to pre-empt talk of a family successor, general who led the 2013 coup promises the constitution will not be touched
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Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi (source: Russian Information Office)
source: Russian Information Office
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has declared that his presidency will end in 2030, calling the question of his departure settled and beyond discussion. "The year 2030 will mark the end of my presidential term. This matter is completely settled," he said at a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy on Saturday. In a social media post, he said he was announcing his departure more than 40 months in advance so that no one could claim he was preparing a family member or relative to succeed him: "This is a very big country, and such things cannot happen here."
Sisi is currently serving a six-year presidential term and volunteered that the Egyptian constitution would not be touched. He came to power in 2013 after leading the military coup that deposed Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president. Rights groups estimate that more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience are held in Egyptian jails, including over 1,000 women; Morsi and several opposition figures are among those who have died in custody, according to the groups, from medical neglect and other prison conditions.
His formulation of the handover was expansive: "I will not leave the Egyptian state until it is brimming with its own people capable of shouldering responsibility" — a sentence delivered at the institution he credited with forming a new generation of leaders.
The announcement lands during a busy stretch for Cairo. Last week Egypt's foreign minister reaffirmed support for Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthis — "Gulf security is integral to Egypt's national security" — and an Egyptian air strike killed 72 civilian workers at a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border. Egypt backs the Sudanese Armed Forces against the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces, and remains at loggerheads with Ethiopia, which Cairo views as a potential naval rival in the Red Sea and a disputant over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Cairo recently hosted representatives of Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea to coordinate military and intelligence efforts should conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea escalate.
Sisi is 71. The constitution, he said on Saturday, will not be touched.