Will Egypt’s Strongman Make It Official?

Egyptians head to the polls later this month. But with President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi seemingly assured of victory, it’s already clear that the big story for Egypt is not the election, but what comes next – an effort to extend presidential terms and formalize the country’s autocracy, writes Michael Wahid Hanna in the Washington Post.
 
Sisi’s regime “has sought to squelch any potential opposition activity before it becomes an emerging or credible threat. This repression has gone beyond obvious political targets and has produced a stultifying environment in which prosecutors have initiated outlandish legal actions, shocking even staunch regime supporters,” Hanna writes.
 
“Such an environment does not set the stage for a convincing renewal of the Sisi regime’s legitimacy. But that is not the purpose of this month’s electoral exercise. Rather, it is a procedural hurdle to clear before the much more consequential effort of constitutional change.”