We Want Sisi for President group calls for Jan 25 marches

“We Want Sisi for President” founder Abdul Aziz Abdullah has called on Egyptians to take to the nation’s streets and squares on January 25 to demand Colonel General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for president, the state-run news site Egynews reported on Monday.

Abdul Aziz claims to have gathered 12 million signatures supporting a Sisi presidency, Egynews reported, and said these numbers continue to increase due to the love and esteem the Egyptian people feel for the defense minister since he saved them from the Muslim Brotherhood regime.

Sisi has been cagey on the question of whether or not he would run for president. On Saturday night, several news websites and Cairo-based TV shows reported that the Armed Forces commander-in-chief, 59, had made up his mind and decided to run for the nation’s top position.

The sources, including the privately owned Al-Wafd newspaper and the satellite channel MBC Masr, also reported that Sisi would soon be removed from his position as minister of defense, in order to make him eligible to run for the presidency.

On Sunday, the Armed Forces spokesperson condemned the reports — although he did not confirm or deny Sisi’s intention to run in the election — and cautioned the media to be “more accurate” in its reporting on the military.

Some analysts have condemned these calls for pro-Sisi marches on January 25 as a means of eradicating the January 25 2011 revolution from Egyptian history and replacing it with the story of the mass protests that began on June 30 2013, leading to former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster at the hands of the military on July 3.

Others anticipate clashes on January 25 between pro- and anti-army demonstrators, with high tension expected to occur between Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated marches and pro-Sisi marches, both of which are planned for the same day.

At the end of December, the revolutionary movement Thwar also launched a Facebook event to invite the Egyptian people to protest on January 25, stating: “Our demands are still the same: Bread, freedom, social justice.”