Egypt’s president is sworn in for a third 6-year term after running virtually unopposed

CAIRO (AP) — President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt was sworn in for a third six-year term on Tuesday after being re-elected in a December vote in which he faced no serious challengers.

El-Sissi took the oath of office before parliament, which convened in the new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo.

El-Sissi won 89.6% of the vote in the December election, with turnout of 66.8% more than 67 million registered voters. He ran against three virtually unknown opponents.

The vote was overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Egypt’s eastern border, which has threatened to expand into wider regional turmoil.

El-Sissi was first elected as president in mid-2014, then reelected in 2018. A year later, constitutional amendments, passed in a general referendum, added two years to el-Sissi’s second term, and allowed him to run for a third, six-year term.

His victory in this latest election was widely seen as inevitable. His three opponents were marginal political figures who were rarely seen during the election campaign.