Many people used to think Egypt’s leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was a hero, but now they see him differently.
A decade ago, Egyptians were happy and cheered for the general who became president. But now, they are not as happy as they thought they would be.
Mr Sisi is running for president for the third time in a row next week. Most people are upset about the bad economy.
Nadia is having a hard time making enough money because Mr. Sisi’s government is making changes to the economy.
The woman is 57 years old, her husband passed away, and she has six children. She struggles to earn enough money by selling newspapers on the street.
In her tiny apartment in a crowded part of Cairo, Nadia tells me that she hasn’t bought meat in three years. She thinks that life is getting more and more expensive every day.
“I’m afraid to sleep because I know prices will be higher in the morning,” she said with a sad smile.
The most recent numbers show that Egypt’s prices went up by 38. 5% in October, which is a little less than the 40. 3% increase from the month before.
These numbers are very high in the most crowded country in the Arab world, and normal people often experience even higher inflation than what the government reports.
‘No one remembers us. ‘
However, as the cost of things has gone up, Nadia’s earnings have gone down.
More than ten years ago, she sold almost 200 newspapers every day. But now she only sells about 20 newspapers.
Nadia says that cooking a meal today costs between 300 and 500 Egyptian pounds, but a few years ago it was about six times cheaper.
“She said that even fruits are very expensive. ”
In the last nine months, the money in Egypt is worth much less compared to the US dollar.
Egypt’s economy relies a lot on imported goods. This has caused the prices of everyday things to go way up, making them too expensive for a lot of families. People have also started trading foreign money on the black market.
Nadia does not feel very hopeful and is clearly worried.
No one cares about the poor. She says it feels like no one sees us and we are being forgotten.
Promises of success and wealth
Ever since Mr. Sisi became president in 2014, a lot of money has been spent on big building projects after he got rid of the previous president, Mohammed Morsi.
New roads and bridges have been built, and a new expensive capital city has been made near Cairo, but not many people live there yet.
Critics say the government’s bad money management has used up a lot of the country’s money and caused very high levels of debt that have harmed the economy a lot.
The president’s followers think that cities getting bigger has made life better for people and will bring in foreign money, leading to better times ahead.
Walid Gaballah, an economist and member of the Egyptian Society for Political Economy, Statistics and Legislation, thinks these projects have made a lot of jobs and helped to solve Egypt’s problem with people not having jobs.
He thinks that global forces are partly to blame for the current economic problems.
The money saved from the government’s reforms was used up by the coronavirus pandemic. “Then the Ukraine war happened, and lots of people from other countries took their money out of Egyptian banks,” he explains.
The government keeps talking about how it spends money on programs to help the poorest and most vulnerable people in Egypt.
However, people are still unhappy about their living conditions getting even worse.
Approximately 30 out of every 100 people in Egypt live in poverty, according to government data. Since 2016, the government took out over $20 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help with its budget.
At the same time, the government has put in place spending cuts to improve the country’s economy. Many important items, like fuel, no longer get financial help, which makes their prices go higher.
A race with only one competitor.
Many Egyptians are not happy, but they don’t have many options in this election. It seems like only one person has a chance to win.
Opposition groups are saying they can’t work well because the government keeps stopping them from speaking out.
Even though there are three unknown politicians running against the president, most people think that the president will easily win another six years in office.
Ahmed Tantawy, a former MP, was a likely candidate in the election. But he quit because he couldn’t get enough support from the public.
In October, he said that the government arrested almost 100 people from his team to stop him from running for office.
Mr Tantawy is being tested in court for printing and sharing election papers without permission.
Worries about going back home.
Human rights campaigners are also upset about strict security rules, just like politicians from the other party. They say it is getting harder to record and prove that abuses have happened.
“Talking about human rights in Egypt is risky,” said Mina Thabet, an activist who has been living in the UK for almost six years. He told me this over Zoom.
He remembers the bad things that happened when he was kept in Egypt for a month in 2016. He was accused of being part of a banned group and spreading lies, which is something the government often accuses its critics of doing.
“I can’t see because my eyes are covered and my hands are tied. ” A police officer hurt me and said they would take off my clothes and hurt me more.
Mr Thabet went to the UK to study one year after he was released. He chose not to go home because he was afraid he might go to jail again.
He said, “I slept well for the first time after I left Egypt. ”
He thinks the election is just another way for Mr Sisi to continue his strict policies, which do not allow any opposition.
“A lot of my friends who stand up for human rights in Egypt are having their money blocked, or they can’t travel anywhere. ” You can’t do your work without being afraid of getting in trouble.
Mr Thabet says he will only return to Egypt when he can work and speak freely without fear of the government punishing him.
The people in charge have always ignored this criticism and said it was just about politics.
They made a group that has given forgiveness to many political prisoners, and they said they will do more to make the country’s human rights better.
Local and global human rights groups say there are many political prisoners in jail, but the government disagrees.
His team is working hard to persuade people that things will get better in the future. Many people here are wondering if his re-election would make any real difference.