Sisi to stay in power in Egypt until 2030 after referendum 'victory'

Egypt’s constitution will be amended to allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to remain in office until 2030 after the government claimed to have won 89 per cent support in a much-criticised referendum.

The Egyptian electoral commission said 11 per cent of citizens voted against the constitutional amendments, which also tighten Mr Sisi’s grip on the judiciary and expand the military’s role in Egyptian politics. 

Amnesty International condemned the referendum as a sham, saying the lack of debate over the major constitutional changes showed “the Egyptian government's contempt for the rights of all people in Egypt”.

Mr Sisi’s supporters hailed the changes as necessary to allow the president to stay in office so he could continue economic reforms and crush a jihadist insurgency in the Sinai desert.

Government supporters honked car horns in central Cairo and blared celebratory music after the result was announced. 

The constitutional changes are the latest step in Mr Sisi’s consolidation of power since he toppled Egypt’s elected Islamist president in a 2013 military coup and seized control of the state.

Since then, his government has jailed tens of thousands of people in mass trials and allegedly performed secret executions and widespread use of torture in Egyptian prisons.

Almost all of Egypt’s independent media has been brought to heel and political opponents have been jailed or driven into exile.

The constitutional changes scrap the presidential two-term limit which was brought in after the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, which saw the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.

Mr Sisi will now be able to stay in office until 2030, by which point he will have been in control of Egypt for 17 years.

The amendments also give Mr Sisi new powers to directly appoint judges and the country’s top prosecutor. The International Commission of Jurists called the changes “a flagrant assault on the rule of law”.

The military is also given a specific mandate “protect the constitution and democracy", which critics see as a justification for future military involvement in civilian politics.

The changes will also lead to the creation of a second chamber in Egypt’s parliament known as the Council of Senators. Two-thirds of the 180 senators will be elected by the public and Mr Sisi will appoint the remaining third.

Finally, the changes introduce a quota to ensure that at least 25 per cent of members of parliament are women.

The constitutional reforms were pushed through at rapid speed. Egypt’s parliament, which is dominated by Sisi loyalists, only finalised the text of the amendments last Tuesday - three days before voting in the referendum began. 

Opponents of the changes were not allowed to campaign while the Yes vote was boosted in pro-government media and in posters which plastered cities across Egypt.

The Egyptian government blocked 34,000 websites in an effort to prevent opponents from organising an online petition against the referendum, according to NetBlocks, an internet freedom group.

Mr Sisi’s allies offered working-class voters payments of 50 Egyptian pounds (£2) or cartons of basic foodstuffs like oil and rice in return for a Yes vote.

The scale of the Yes victory announced Tuesday was relatively modest compared to previous elections. Mr Sisi won 97 per cent of the vote in his past two presidential elections, according to official figures.

Mr Sisi presented himself as more concerned with affairs of state than the referendum campaign.

On Tuesday, he hosted African leaders in Cairo for a summit about the situation in Libya, where an Egyptian-backed warlord is trying to overthrow the UN-backed government, and Sudan, where protesters recently overthrew their authoritarian leader.

Mr Sisi was hosted by Donald Trump at the White House several weeks before the referendum, in what seen as a sign of tacit American approval for his constitutional overhaul.

Despite Mr Sisi’s human rights record, the Trump administration sees Egypt as an ally in the fight against terrorism and is looking to Cairo to help support its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which is due to be released this summer.