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On Wednesday, May 3, 2023, the opening session of the National Dialogue was launched in Cairo; those sessions that Khaled Badawi, a member of the Youth and Sports Committee of the House of Representatives, called “a reassuring message to all political forces.” The next day, at precisely 1:00 am, the National Security forces arrested both Mohamed Naguib Al-Tantawi and Mohamed Sayed Ahmed Atiya, who are the uncles and cousin of the former deputy Ahmed Al-Tantawi, who announced in March of last year his intention to return from Lebanon and run for the upcoming presidential elections. Their arrest occurred two days before Tantawi’s scheduled return to Egypt, which was supposed to take place on May 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tantawi had confirmed in a statement announcing his candidacy for the presidency that his candidacy would only be “if he is not prevented directly or indirectly.” He also added that he would participate if “the electoral process was serious and genuine.” He further stated that he had finished formulating his vision and that he would announce it at the appropriate time and context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that those close to Tantawi have been arrested. In June 2019, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced in a statement that it had arrested some “leaders and elements” on charges of managing companies “affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group” and participating in planning with leaders residing abroad “to overthrow state institutions,” coinciding with the celebrations of June 30. Among those arrested was the director of the office of Deputy Ahmed Tantawi. Hours after the arrest of Tantawi’s office director, many Egyptian newspapers and news websites circulated a report about a complaint filed with the Egyptian Attorney General demanding the lifting of Tantawi’s immunity due to his office director’s involvement in “a terrorist cell.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to sources within the leadership of the Higher Committee of the party, Tantawi left the country for Beirut after security directives were issued to keep him away from the political scene and prevent him from writing, as reported by the Madamasr website. The website added, according to a third source from the Civil Democratic Movement, that “Tantawi traveled to Beirut to sort out his papers, determine his next step, and whether to obtain a PhD certificate from outside Egypt or return to the country after several months, stressing that the matter is not a denial or a threat to Tantawi of imprisonment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Days later, Tantawi appeared to announce that his “trip to Beirut was for the purpose of studying and preparing himself academically and practically,” and that “for a temporary period, he will return to his homeland, which no one can prevent him from living in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Egypt, anyone who tries to compete with the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who belongs to the army, is subject to direct or indirect imprisonment or oppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aboul Fotouh <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An Egyptian court has sentenced former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh to 15 years in prison on charges of spreading false news. The former presidential candidate was arrested in February 2018, about a month and a half before Egypt’s presidential election, which was won by the current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Aboul Fotouh had called for a boycott of the presidential elections along with several other figures, accusing el-Sisi of preventing any fair competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Supreme State Security Prosecution charged Aboul Fotouh with joining a group that was established against the law and spreading false news inside and outside of Egypt that harmed the country’s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aboul Fotouh ran in Egypt’s presidential elections in 2012, which were won by the late Islamic president Mohamed Morsi, who was overthrown by the military in July 2013 after massive popular protests against his rule and against the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samy Anan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Samy Anan announced his intention to run for the presidency in the March 2018 elections, calling on civil and military state institutions to remain neutral among all those who declared their intention to run for the presidency. Anan said he would seek to correct “erroneous policies that held our armed forces solely responsible for the confrontation without sound policies that enable the civilian sector in the state to play its integrated role with the role of the armed forces.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n About ten days after Anan announced his candidacy for the presidential elections, the Egyptian armed forces issued a statement accusing the former Chief of Staff of committing violations and announcing an investigation into him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The statement said: “In light of what was announced by General Sami Hafez Anan, former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, of his candidacy for the presidency, the armed forces would not have overlooked the explicit legal violations committed by the aforementioned, which constituted a serious breach of the rules and regulations of service.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was charged with running for the presidency without obtaining the approval of the armed forces, as well as inciting against the army and forgery in official documents related to the termination of his service in the armed forces. Anan was arrested on January 23, 2018, and his election campaign was halted. In October 2019, the Egyptian authorities released him after he was detained in a military prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahmed Shafik<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 2017, UAE officials accompanied Ahmed Shafik, the former prime minister, who announced his intention to run for presidency in the upcoming elections, from his home in Abu Dhabi to deport him to Cairo, according to his lawyer Dina Adly Hussein. Shafik’s family at the time said they had lost contact with him for several days after his deportation from the United Arab Emirates to Cairo, following his announcement of his intention to run for the presidency, which will be held the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shafik, the former air force commander, was considered the strongest potential competitor to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2018. “Reuters” quoted an official source in the Ministry of Interior as saying, “The Interior Ministry did not arrest Shafik, nor did it receive any request from the prosecution to that effect,” while an official in General Intelligence and another in National Security in the hotel where he resides said that Shafik “is not completely free” without giving further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterwards, Ahmed Shafik announced his reversal of his previous decision to run for the presidential elections, officially announcing that he will not participate in the elections, saying, “By monitoring the situation, I have come to realize that I will not be the optimal person to lead the country’s affairs in the coming period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahmed Qonswa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahmed Qonswa, an officer in the Egyptian army, was arrested just four days after announcing his intention to run for presidency. On November 29, Qonswa, a colonel and consulting architect, posted three videos on his Facebook page announcing his candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled to take place in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the videos, Qonswa criticized government policies in education, health, and the economy, and stated that his candidacy was in line with the goals and demands of the January 25 and June 30 revolutions. He was later sentenced to six years in prison and hard labor by a military court for “violating the military system.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previous news reports suggested that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi expressed anger in meetings with military leaders over Qonswa’s challenge, and rejected the suggestion that his candidacy be simply denied the necessary legal approval from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Instead, el-Sisi insisted on a decisive stance that would be in line with the support he assumed from the military, which had granted him approval and support to run for the presidency four years prior when he was serving as the Minister of Defense. It is worth mentioning that after about 20 months of the constitution’s adoption, Sisi stated in a conference for Egyptian university students in September 2015 that some of the constitution’s articles were written “with good intentions” and added that “countries are not built on good intentions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a February 2016 interview with the French magazine Jeune Afrique, Sisi was asked if he would amend the constitution to stay in power for more than eight years. He replied that the Egyptian people would not allow that because they are “intelligent and have a rich civilization, and they know how to choose. When they refused Morsi, thirty million citizens went down to the streets,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another part of the interview, Sisi believed that “democracy is a long and continuous process, and achieving it in Egypt will take a period ranging from twenty to twenty-five years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November 2017, Sisi said in an interview with the American TV channel CNN that “I am committed to two presidential terms, each of which lasts four years, and to not changing this system,” he said, adding “We have a new constitution now, and I am not in favor of making any changes to the constitution during this period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Wednesday, May 3, 2023, the opening session of the National Dialogue was launched in Cairo; those sessions that Khaled Badawi, a member of the Youth and Sports Committee of the House of Representatives, called “a reassuring message to all political forces.” The next day, at precisely 1:00 am, the National Security forces arrested both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[561,410,412],"tags":[401,400,402,540],"kateb":[],"class_list":["post-2828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category----2024-en","category-investigations-en","category-politics-en","tag-egypt","tag-human-rights","tag-investigation","tag-zawia3-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u064a\u0633\u064a.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2836,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions\/2836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Egyptian parliament amended the presidential term in the Egyptian constitution from 4 years to 6 years, allowing President Sisi to stay in power until 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n