CAIRO // Egypt’s former army chief was sworn in yesterday as president, urging hard work to correct the mistakes of the past in a polarised nation struggling with political turmoil and a battered economy.
Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s ascension brings Egypt full circle back to its decades-old tradition of a president pulled from the military’s ranks.
Mr El Sisi defeated his sole rival in last month’s election by securing 97 per cent of the vote.
Mr El Sisi, who removed country’s first freely elected leader last July, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, addressed a ceremony held at a presidential palace in Cairo hours after he was sworn in by the supreme constitutional court.
“It is time for us to build a future that is more stable and pen a new reality for the future of this nation,” he said.
He said hard work, something that he has repeatedly called for in recent weeks, will allow Egyptians to pay attention to rights and freedoms to deepen and develop them.
Mr El Sisi has received strong support from Arabian Gulf countries as the right person to solve a deteriorating security situation and a failing economy in the Arab world’s most populous country.
A UAE delegation attended the ceremony led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Sheikh Mohammed congratulated Mr El Sisi on behalf of the UAE.
“The UAE was and will always be loyal to Egypt and will always be its strong supporter,” Sheikh Mohammed said after meeting Mr El Sisi.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been Egypt’s biggest benefactors since Mr Morsi’s removal in July after days of mass protests, injecting billions of dollars in grants and other aid.
Egypt will undergo a total renaissance domestically and in the foreign arena to compensate for what we missed and correct the mistakes of the past, Mr El Sisi said to an audience of foreign dignitaries.
The time has come to chart a new reality for Egypt that allows its citizens to live better and develop freedoms in a responsible context, he said.
Heavy burden
Mr El Sisi spoke at the presidential palace where Mr Morsi and Hosni Mubarak had ruled, and was sworn in at the same hall in the supreme constitutional court where Mr Morsi had also taken the oath of office.
The animosity against Mr Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood that fielded him for office was palpable, with one judge describing the Islamist’s regime as a period when one group tore apart the nation.
Mr Morsi’s removal was a result of an uprising inspired by people tired of the destruction that has befallen them, the injustice they faced, said Maher Sami, deputy head of the court.
Mr El Sisi’s rise to the presidency was described by the state-run Al Ahram newspaper on its front page as a New Era. The banner headline of the independent Al Watan newspaper read: Today, El Sisi Assumes the Heavy Burden.
Egypt’s economy has limped along since Mr Mubarak was deposed in a popular uprising, with its slowest economic growth rate in two decades. Issues seen as catalysing that revolt, such as unemployment and inflation, have yet to be redressed, and foreign reserves are about half their December 2010 levels.
While millions of Egyptians opposed what they considered as the Muslim Brotherhood’s push to dominate politics under Mr Morsi, the group and others say Mr El Sisi’s rise and the subsequent crackdown on Islamists has undercut the country’s nascent democratic hopes.
Hundreds of Mr Morsi supporters have been killed since his removal, and thousands more were either given death sentences or face criminal charges.
The Brotherhood, declared a terrorist organisation, boycotted the election. Mr El Sisi’s only competition came from former legislator Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished third in the 2012 election against Mr Morsi.
The Brotherhood’s supporters have declared the presidential vote null and void and vowed to press on with protests, calling in an e-mailed statement for massive turnouts on July 3, the anniversary of Mr Morsi’s removal.
* Bloomberg, Associated Press and Wam