Egypt’s parliament voted for sweeping changes in the country’s constitution to extend President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s rule and give him unprecedented powers.
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Sudarsan Raghavan Cairo bureau chief covering North Africa and Yemen Email Bio Follow Heba Farouk Mahfouz April 16 at 1:42 PM CAIRO — Egyptian lawmakers on Tuesday approved sweeping changes in the country’s constitution to extend President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s rule and give him unprecedented powers, cementing his authoritarian grip on the Arab world’s most populous nation.
“We know that the vast majority of Egyptians do not support these amendments, but a free and fair vote will be almost impossible,” Dina Darwish, an Egyptian American physician and activist, said in a statement. “Many Egyptians fear for what will happen if they do not support Sissi. When a vote is based on fear, it is not a democratic vote.”
Sissi would also receive new powers to appoint judges as well as the public prosecutor, in effect handing him control over the judiciary. The proposed changes also include amending the constitution to state that the military’s role is to protect “the constitution and democracy.” Critics said that would allow the military, which Sissi once led and remains the force behind his presidency, to influence politics and expand its power.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to interfere in the judicial affairs this bluntly,” said a 39-year-old doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears becoming a target of the regime. “These amendments all serve the benefit of one man, a one-man's rule.” Sissi, a retired army general and armed forces commander, became president in 2014, a year after he led a military coup that toppled Egypt’s elected Islamist leader, Mohamed Morsi. In 2018, Sissi was reelected in an election in which all of his credible opponents were driven out of the contest through arrests, intimidation or the absence of a level playing field.
The website could still be accessed from abroad and through a VPN or an encrypted messaging app. By Tuesday, the number of signatures had reportedly reached more than 250,000. Then, the Sissi government blocked or partly blocked 34,000 more websites and domain names to prevent Egyptians from joining the “void” campaign, according to Netblocks.org, an independent, nonpartisan civil society group working for digital rights and freedoms.
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