Campaign trail: Tantawi tours in rare show of public politics, Sisi tells ‘Story of Nation’ in unofficial campaign speech

In a show of public politics that has been rare over the last 10 years, presidential hopeful Ahmed Tantawi took to the streets in downtown Cairo and governorates across the country over the weekend, shaking hands and talking with crowds outside notary offices where he is hoping to mobilize enough popular support to collect 25,000 nomination forms. 

Tantawi is one of three opposition candidates that are attempting to mount bids against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has yet to announce his candidacy nearly a week into the official election season. But Sisi held forth in a public address over the weekend that had all the stylings of a campaign speech, as he provided a narrative of the country’s history over the last 12 years since the 2011 Revolution. 

While Tantawi faces an uphill battle to collect the require signatures to run in the December 10-12 elections – his campaign has notably faced intimidation from state authorities – his cohort in the Civil Democratic Movement Farid Zahran secured 20 nomination forms from MPs since submissions opened last week, while Gameela Ismail, also from the CDM, is also assaying the parliamentary route to an official bid after facing intimidation at public registry offices at the end of last week.  

Zahran is the only one of the three opposition figures to qualify as a candidate, putting him beside Wafd Party head Abdel Sanad Yamama and Republican People’s Party head Hazem Omar — hopeful candidates who have praised Sisi even as they announce their intention to run — as the only other prospective candidates to have crossed the nomination threshold.

While Sisi is yet to announce whether he will seek reelection for a third term, it is all but a foregone conclusion that the country will see his presidency last until 2030. The president secured nearly 100 percent of the vote in the 2014 and 2018 presidential elections and pushed through constitutional amendments in 2019 that would allow him to stay in office beyond the earlier two-term limit.

Over the weekend, the government organized a highly publicized press conference titled Hekayet Watan (The Story of a Nation), retelling Egypt’s history from 2011 to showcase achievements and projects undertaken under Sisi’s leadership, measures taken to combat terrorism, as well as a review of obstacles that have arisen over the past few years. While not billed as campaign material, it continues the unofficial campaign that Sisi has undertaken since midway through the summer as the country has weathered an economic crisis and uncharacteristic moment of open political dialogue. 

But in his speech over the weekend, the president hammered home what has become familiar rhetoric of late, asking for people to cinch their belts for the benefit of the country. 

“If the price of construction, development and progress is hunger and deprivation, be very careful, Egyptians,” the president said. “Don’t you dare say we’d rather eat. By God, if the price of a nation’s progress and prosperity is people being unable to eat and drink, then we will not eat and drink.”

In response to speculation about whether he will throw his hat into the election fray, Sisi said on Saturday that “all matters are in the hands of God and that no one takes more than their share in life.”

Away from the TV screens that only Sisi is afforded, Tantawi, the former Karama Party head, who was subject to a spyware injection recently, resumed campaigning at official nomination form collection sites in a number of governorates over the weekend. He had announced on Thursday that his supporters were being prevented from submitting papers to back his candidacy and had halted his campaign to regroup.

But that pause was temporary, with the presidential hopeful meeting with members of the public in Giza, downtown Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubiya, Beheira, Gharbeia, Daqahliya and his hometown of Kafr al-Sheikh. Videos from the sites showed people chanting his name and calling him the new president. In the videos, crowds holding pro-Sisi banners stood beside the Tantawi campaign rallies. 

Complaints of violence and intimidation against Tantawi supporters seeking to endorse the presidential hopeful have been circulating since the election season officially opened on Tuesday. 

Tantawi’s political advisor Ahmed Abdeen said on Saturday that a campaign official and a number of supporters were assaulted at the registry office in Delingat, Beheira, while journalists shared clips they attributed to the incident. 

Tantawi submitted two appeals on Wednesday to the State Council against the head of the National Elections Authority, calling on the election body to fulfill its duty to allow citizens to endorse whichever potential candidate they prefer, “without prevention, coercion, intimidation, or aggression by any entities or individuals.”

The elections authority responded to Tantawi’s public appeal with a statement on Thursday, asserting that no violations or harassment have been recorded at the designated registry offices. All “doubts and insults are unacceptable” and nothing but false allegations, the NEA statement read.

Ismail, the head of the liberal Dostor Party, also came out on Thursday to make claims that her supporters had faced intimidation and were prevented from submitting nomination forms at registry offices in Cairo, Menoufia and Qalyubiya, complaining that the NEA had failed to investigate the allegations. 

But Ismail is not placing all her hopes in the public nomination route, as she campaigned in the House of Representatives on Sunday to secure nomination forms from at least 20 sitting parliamentarians.

Meanwhile, with Egyptian Social Democratic Party head Farid Zahran sitting safely on the 20 MP’s nominations, his vice president in the party, Mahmoud Samy, told TV host Amr Adib on Friday that the party would also attempt to secure nomination forms from members of the public as a way to stimulate popular engagement with Zahran’s campaign.

Fielding three candidates has posed a test to the principle of political pluralism at the heart of the Civil Democratic Movement, a collection of leftist, liberal and Nasserist parties. While the party has stated it maintains equal distance between the three candidates, a source within the movement told Mada Masr that its call for members to support the three candidates in collecting nomination forms was met with mostly support for Tantawi, given his broad public support and the success he has had on the campaign trail already. CDM members of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party and the Karama Party have come out in public support of Tantawi.

Once Zahran, Tantawi and Ismail collect enough nomination forms, said Samy, a meeting will be held among them to decide whether one of them will represent the opposition on behalf of the Civil Democratic Movement in the upcoming elections or if they will go head-to-head as independents.

Zahran said that he has no plans to quit the presidential race in protest if either Ismail or Tantawi are prevented from running. Speaking to Mada Masr on Sunday, Zahran said, “if only one of the three remains in the presidential race, the correct position is for the opposition to rally around them, including of course the other two candidates.”

“Each of us represents a different current,” he added, meaning it is unlikely that the three candidates’ supporters would converge around a single figurehead at this stage.

But the movement is united in condemning the attacks on the campaigns of all members. In a Tuesday statement, the movement stated that the intimidation Ismail, Zahran and Tantawi’s campaigns have faced is a “stark contrast to the most basic demands for the integrity and freedom of elections.”

Khaled Dawoud, the movement’s spokesperson, told Mada Masr that the movement will hold a press conference on Wednesday to present evidence and testimonies documenting intimidation against all three candidates and nomination form collection sites.