Media reports: Sisi preparing for elections, studying up on the economy

Speculation continues around the possible run for president by Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the man who led the “popular revolution” which saw the removal of former President Mohamed Morsi in July. Sources now say that the general is preparing a political platform that focuses on economic issues.

Citing a number of political sources, the privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper reports that Sisi is reading up on economic issues and has brought together experts to form several working groups.

The economy is likely to be the most important issue in the upcoming election, said Ramy Yaacoub, from the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He stressed that his comments regarding the upcoming presidential elections were independent of the institute. Yaacoub previously worked for the Free Egyptians Party on two campaigns.

“For any presidential candidate, I think it’s the main issue that has to be resolved,” he explained. “The Egyptian economy as it is can’t be sustained without subsidies from abroad.”

Yaccoub continued, “Someone has to come up with an economic reform plan. But someone has to have the political capital to implement this plan.”

When now-deposed President Mohamed Morsi ran for the presidency in 2012, he called his economic platform the “Renaissance Plan.” But during his one-year tenure he struggled to implement economic reforms; he introduced a number of new taxes but retracted the measures only hours later.

According to one of the anonymous sources cited by Al-Shorouk, Sisi has asked economic experts and business figures to suggest programs to promote during his presidential campaign.

Sisi has also been reading up on reports outside his realm of national security, the report said, devoting a significant amount of his time to reading up on the Egyptian economy, including detailed statistical reports.

Despite the media’s current preoccupation with national security concerns, Yaacoub said messaging and political platforms should be kept separate.

“Political messaging in Egypt is the hypernationalism and other things of the sort that are getting more of an domestic audience,” he said. “But if you look at the political messaging, they can tie the lack of the security to economic troubles. It takes crafty political work to do that.”