Correct Answer :   Egypt

Egypt’s election authority announced on 18 December 2023 that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has secured a third six-year term leading the North African nation.  

* Sisi won another term with 89.6 percent of the vote, the National Elections Authority said.  Over 39 million Egyptians voted for the former army chief, who has ruled the nation for over a decade.  

* This will be Sisi’s final term in office as the Egyptian constitution only allows a president to sit for three terms.  

* He was first sworn into office in 2014 after the overthrow of the country’s first popularly elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and was reelected in 2018, both times winning with over 90 percent of the vote.  

* Egypt’s election took place as the nation is struggling with a slow-burning economic crisis and keeping a long-standing position as a mediator between Palestine and Israel.

* Furthermore, the Egyptian economy has worsened to the point where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said they’re “seriously considering” increasing its loans to Egypt.  

* “The conflict is devastating Gaza's population and economy and has severe impacts on the West Bank's economy and is also posing difficulties for neighboring countries Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan through the loss of tourism and higher energy costs,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had previously said.

* Egypt’s economic struggles can only potentially worsen amid Yemen’s Ansarallah attacks on the Red Sea, forcing ships to take the long route around Africa instead of the Suez Canal – a significant source of income for Egypt.  

* Cairo has also been dealing with Israel’s plan of displacing Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert, with Sisi threatening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of rupturing diplomatic ties.  

* Israeli sources told Axios, “The Egyptians expressed anxiety that a crisis on their border with Gaza would result in thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing the border barrier and trying to find shelter in the Sinai.”

* “Displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Sinai means transferring the conflict and the killings from Gaza to Sinai, where Sinai becomes a base for launching operations against Israel, and in this case, Israel will have the right to defend itself, so it directs its strikes against Egyptian territory...


Source : Thecradle