Egypt’s Sisi sworn in for 2nd term in office

By Hussein Elkabany

CAIRO (AA) – Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in for a second term in office on Saturday after winning elections by a landslide in March.

“I will be a president for all Egyptians, who agree with me and who don’t,” al-Sisi said in a speech to parliament after taking the oath.

“No one will be excluded from this except those who choose violence, terrorism and extremism to impose their will,” he said, going on to say that he will seek to achieve a genuine political development, along with economic development.

Saturday’s oath-taking ceremony before parliament is the first since 2005 when former autocrat Hosni Mubarak was sworn in after the country’s first multi-candidate election.

Mubarak was swept from power by a popular uprising in 2011 after three decades in power.

A former army chief, al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, in a military coup in 2013.

A year later, he was elected president for a four-year term.

He was re-elected in March after presidential elections in which he won a whopping 97.8 percent of votes, while his sole contender, Musa Mustafa Musa, grabbed only 2.92 percent. All other presidential hopefuls were either withdrew or arrested.