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Egypt: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sworn in as President
Screen grab Abdel Fattah al-Sisi takes the oath of office during his swearing-in ceremony as Egypt’s new president. PHOTO/Reuters
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in as president on Sunday following a landslide election almost a year after he deposed Egypt’s first freely elected leader and crushed his Islamist supporters.
al-Sisi took the oath of office at the Constitutional Court and then left to attend a reception with foreign dignitaries. He won the vote in an election boycotted by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood and secular dissidents.
“I swear by almighty God to preserve the republican system, and to respect the constitution and the law and to care for the interests of the people; and to preserve the independence of the nation and its territorial integrity,” Sisi declared in the ceremony broadcast live on television.
al-Sisi will also sign a transfer of power agreement with Adly Mansour, a chief justice whom Sisi had installed as interim president when he ousted Mursi on July 3.
Riding a wave of popularity since then, al-Sisi won the May 26-28 election with 96.9 percent of the vote against his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi. The nature of the victory showed he still enjoyed immense support for his overthrow of the divisive Mursi, after millions held protests demanding an end to the Islamist’s single year of turbulent rule.
But the lower than anticipated turnout of about 47 per cent denied al-Sisi the overwhelming mandate he had called for ahead of the vote. The now banned Brotherhood had called for a boycott of the election.
