The Egyptian Ministry of Interior has arrested approximately 400 individuals from the governorate of Marsa Matrouh in northern Egypt, following yesterday’s events that took the form of small protests in the city. Videos were circulated on social media, showing dozens of demonstrators in the Marsa Matrouh governorate in northern Egypt. These videos highlighted citizens chanting slogans calling for the departure of the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, rejecting his candidacy for a third presidential term. This occurred shortly after he announced his candidacy for the last time, in accordance with the constitutional amendments made in 2019.
The Ministry of Interior stated this morning, Tuesday, in a statement, that the angry demonstrations depicted in the recorded videos were a result of a brawl among some youth in one of the areas of the Marsa Matrouh governorate, due to competition over taking photos with Libyan poets. It appeared to be a denial of the protests.
“Zawia3” verified the accuracy of the incident by comparing what appeared in the recorded videos with the official statement from the Ministry of Interior. It was found that it did indeed involve an assault on one person. The video uploader claimed it was an attack on a police officer, and it seems that the Ministry of Interior specifically referred to this clip in their statement.
On the other hand, “Zawia3” verified other circulated videos through various means and confirmed their accuracy, matching the written dates and locations of occurrence (also matching the campaign advertisements for Sisi’s candidacy for a third term, and the locations of gatherings for the president’s support event and the October victories celebration organized by the singer Ahmed Sheiba). Among them were no reused old clips or images.
What caught attention was that the ages of the protesters appeared to be under 20 years old, possibly due to the gathering of school students for the celebrations. This contributed to a state of anger and protest that forced the police to quickly attempt to disperse the demonstrations. However, the demonstrators who gathered late yesterday evening on Alexandria Street near Marsa Matrouh General Hospital expressed their extreme anger at what they described as a “deception.” They had been summoned to celebrate the October victories anniversary, only to discover that it was a gathering to endorse President Sisi’s candidacy for a third presidential term. This led to a riot and the burning of images of Sisi and some promotional banners, which appeared to be support from some businessmen and the “Homeland’s Protectors” party for Sisi’s candidacy.
President Sisi had announced his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections after rallying a large number of school employees, laborers, students, and government agency workers in several squares across Egypt yesterday. This gave the impression of a new popular mandate to demand his candidacy.
