CAMPAIGN BEGINS FOR GENERAL AL-SISI PRESIDENTIAL BID

         Cairo, 4 Dzulqaidah 1434/9 September 2013 (MINA) – A campaign has been launched in Cairo to push for army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to make a presidential bid. He is the current self-appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of the coup government which deposed elected President Mohamed Morsi in July.

        Co-founder of the campaign Nasrallah Rifai said that Al-Sisi is the “best candidate” to lead Egypt during the next phase. “He saved Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule,” claimed Rifai, describing the movement as a “terrorist organisation”.

        Bizarrely, Rifai claimed that in winning a number of democratic elections the Brotherhood “seized power”, leading to the Egyptian people “suffering tremendously” when the Islamic movement “revealed its ugly face”. He said that it was only Al-Sisi’s “courageous attitude” which “saved” the people of Egypt.

       Under Al-Sisi, continued Rifai, Egypt will regain its leading position in the Arab world and international arena. He believes, quite seriously, that the general who overthrew the man who appointed him in the first place “fought terrorism and uncovered treachery”.

         The campaign aims to collect thirty million signatures supporting Al-Sisi’s nomination in the upcoming presidential elections. It follows media suggestions that the Defence Minister should stand for president, comparing him to President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

         General Al-Sisi has asserted several times that he does not intend to run for the presidency, according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).  (T/P01/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)