Against 3 little-known candidates, al-Sissi on course for a 3rd term

It’s a clear road ahead for the incumbent president, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who looks set to win a third term at the helm of Egypt.

Voting began on Sunday and will continue until Tuesday, in a country of 106 million inhabitants and 67 million voters.

Egyptians voted on Sunday in a presidential election overshadowed by the war in neighboring Gaza.

Incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi went to the polls, as did the other three candidates in the running: Farid Zahran of the Egyptian Democratic and Social Party, Abdel-Sanad Yamama of the Wafd and Hazem Omar of the Republican People’s Party.

“I only know President Sissi, I don’t know the other candidates,” Asmaa Rafaat, a forty-something woman voting in Cairo, told AFP.

Despite Egypt’s difficulties, no serious opposition seems likely to exist under the iron-fisted rule of Mr. Sissi, the fifth president to come from the ranks of the army since 1952.