CAIRO: With Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s re-election as Egyptian president next week practically a foregone conclusion, his supporters have taken to using campaign posters not just to promote him but also themselves.
Supporters including traders, lawyers, doctors and engineers have jumped on the election bandwagon and are hanging banners showing photos of the president and themselves to advertise their services. In previous elections, they would have simply signed their names below a photo of their preferred candidate.
“El-Sisi has a big public profile and the banners of support in the street are very normal,” said Tariq Fahmi, a professor of political science at the American University. “Some supporters are trying to promote themselves by putting their pictures next to the president’s pictures.”
A debate about the ethics of using the president’s image in advertising was sparked among passers-by recently after workers hung banners showing the president and local shop-owners in Roxy Square in the Heliopolis district of northern Cairo.
Some of the Egyptians thought it was acceptable, saying the shop-owners deserved praise for spending their own money to express support for the president. Others saw it as extravagant, saying the banners’ costs should have gone toward more deserving causes.
Mohamed Bahaa Abu Shoka, spokesman for the presidential campaign, said the president appreciated such gestures but appealed to supporters to stop spending so much on this kind of promotion.
The presidential elections are the third since the 2011 Arab Spring that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the former president. Voting takes place over three days from next Monday.
The only other candidate in the election is Musa Mustafa Musa, who leads a party that had initially backed El-Sisi’s re-election bid. Other potential candidates, including a former chief of staff, Sami Anan, have been arrested amid a crackdown on opposition.
Ahmad Al-Sarjani, a 60-year-old shopkeeper who put his photograph next to the president’s picture in a banner, said he had originally intended to just put his name. But when he saw other business people and members of Parliament using their own pictures, he decided to do the same.
He said he did this out of affection for the president as well as for publicity for his shop because “the most important institutions, companies and factories in the state do so too.”
A teacher at a preparatory school in Giza province said the idea for their El-Sisi banner came from the school principal. “We volunteered (to pay) costs from our own pockets, in addition to the contribution of the school, to confirm our support for President El-Sisi,” said the teacher.
Earlier this month the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, condemned the “pervasive climate of intimidation” in Egypt in the lead-up the polls. He said potential candidates have been “pressured to withdraw” and “independent media have been silenced.” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry described his comments as “baseless allegations.”
In a report issued on Friday, Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog said the international community is doing a “major disservice” to the Egyptian people by supporting the Egyptian armed forces with “few strings attached.”
El-Sisi posters offer supporters chance for self-promotion
El-Sisi posters offer supporters chance for self-promotion
Syrian army pushes into Aleppo district after Kurdish groups reject withdrawal
- Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo city on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.
The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria as the country tries to rebuild after a devastating war, with Kurdish forces resisting efforts by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government to bring their fighters under centralized authority.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces are trying to cling on to several neighborhoods they have run since the early days of the war, which began in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Standoff pits government against Kurdish forces
• Sharaa says Kurds are ‘fundamental’ part of Syria
• More than 140,000 have fled homes due to unrest
• Turkish, Syrian foreign ministers discuss Aleppo by phone
ِA ceasefire was announced by the defense ministry overnight, demanding the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over the pockets of Aleppo that Kurdish forces have held.
CEASEFIRE ‘FAILED,’ SECURITY OFFICIALS SAY
But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighborhoods,” accusing government forces of intensive shelling.
Hours later, the Syrian army said that the deadline for Kurdish fighters to withdraw had expired, and that it would begin a military operation to clear the last Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force.
The Syrian defense ministry had earlier carried out strikes on parts of Sheikh Maksoud that it said were being used by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to launch attacks on the “people of Aleppo.” It said on Friday that SDF strikes had killed three army soldiers.
Kurdish security forces in Aleppo said some of the strikes hit a hospital, calling it a war crime. The defense ministry disputed that, saying the structure was a large arms depot and that it had been destroyed in the resumption of strikes on Friday.
It posted an aerial video that it said showed the location after the strikes, and said secondary explosions were visible, proving it was a weapons cache.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
The SDF is a powerful Kurdish-led security force that controls northeastern Syria. It says it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighborhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.
Under an agreement with Damascus last March the SDF was due to integrate with the defense ministry by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
FRANCE, US SEEK DE-ESCALATION
France’s foreign ministry said it was working with the United States to de-escalate.
A ministry statement said President Emmanuel Macron had urged Sharaa on Thursday “to exercise restraint and reiterated France’s commitment to a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected.”
A Western diplomat told Reuters that mediation efforts were focused on calming the situation and producing a deal that would see Kurdish forces leave Aleppo and provide security guarantees for Kurds who remained.
The diplomat said US envoy Tom Barrack was en route to Damascus. A spokesperson for Barrack declined to comment. Washington has been closely involved in efforts to promote integration between the SDF — which has long enjoyed US military support — and Damascus, with which the United States has developed close ties under President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire declared by the government overnight said Kurdish forces should withdraw by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, but no one withdrew overnight, Syrian security sources said.
Barrack had welcomed what he called a “temporary ceasefire” and said Washington was working intensively to extend it beyond the 9 a.m. deadline. “We are hopeful this weekend will bring a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue,” he wrote on X.
TURKISH WARNING
Turkiye views the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has warned of military action if it does not honor the integration agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Thursday, expressed hope that the situation in Aleppo would be normalized “through the withdrawal of SDF elements.”
Though Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who belongs to the Sunni Muslim majority, has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, bouts of violence in which government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze have spread alarm in minority communities over the last year.
The Kurdish councils in Aleppo said Damascus could not be trusted “with our security and our neighborhoods,” and that attacks on the areas aimed to bring about displacement.
Sharaa, in a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirmed that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric,” the Syrian presidency said.
Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters from the recent clashes.
