Polls show high approval ratings for Sisi after first 100 days in office

After his first 100 days in office, a recent poll claims 82 percent of Egyptians say they’re happy with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s performance to date, while only 5 percent are dissatisfied.

The poll, conducted by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera), showed a steady level of public satisfaction with Sisi’s presidency. The last survey conducted in late August generated similar results, with 81 percent of respondents approving his performance.

In the most recent survey, 58 percent of participants said they highly approved of Sisi’s presidency, 24 percent merely approved, 2 percent disapproved and another 2 percent greatly disapproved. The remaining 13 percent of those polled said they were unable to evaluate the president’s performance.

When broken down by demographics, the poll indicated that 63 percent of men were content with Sisi, 10 percent more than the women who participated. The approval rate among the elderly was as high as 72 percent, while it only reached 41 percent among the youth.

Another poll conducted by the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies was largely consistent with the Baseera poll, indicating that the majority of those surveyed were generally satisfied with Sisi’s political decisions, but were not happy with his economic policies.

The Ibn Khaldun poll had a slightly lower approval rating, with 61 percent of participants saying they were satisfied with Sisi after his first 100 days, 28 percent saying they were indifferent and 11 percent expressing dissatisfaction.

The respondents said they felt Egypt had become more secure and politically stable since Sisi took office, but there was no improvement in living conditions and civil liberties.

Furthermore, 65 percent of respondents said they were either dissatisfied with or neutral toward Sisi’s economic policies, thought 98 percent of those surveyed were either extremely satisfied, generally satisfied or neutral toward his political decisions.

But Dalia Ziyada, the Ibn Khaldun Center’s executive director, noted that most of the answers were “neutral,” denoting the respondents’ skeptical attitude for the future.

The center issued recommendations to Sisi based on the poll, including amending the controversial Protest Law passed last November, and the recently issued Civil Society Law, which is widely expected to narrow the space for civil society to operate in Egypt.

Sisi’s presidency has been marked by a harsh crackdown on street political actions and civil society initiatives, and a staggeringly high number of political arrests.