Egypt’s military chief resigns and announces plan to run for presidency

Egypt’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has resigned from his post, announcing that he will run for the presidency.

Field Marshal Sisi, who was also defence minister, faces no serious competition in the election, likely before June, and is expected to win comfortably as he rides a wave of popularity for his law-and-order message.

In declaring his intention to contest the election, Field Marshal Sisi vowed to rid the country of “terrorism”, almost nine months after he toppled the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, who was elected in 2012.

Field Marshal Sisi declared his widely anticipated candidacy in a televised address.

Who is Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?

“Today, I stand before you for the last time in a military uniform, after deciding to end my service as defence minister and commander of the armed forces,” he said, dressed in his field marshal’s uniform.

“With all modesty, I nominate myself for the presidency of Egypt.

“I will continue to fight every day for an Egypt free of terrorism.”

The Egyptian military has declared the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation’s leading Islamist party, a terrorist group.

Field Marshal Sisi is easily the country’s most popular political figure after he overthrew the freely elected but divisive Islamist president Morsi in July last year.

His popularity comes amid demands for a firm leader who can restore stability after more than three years of turmoil since the overthrow of veteran president Hosni Mubarak.

But Morsi’s supporters have not given up their campaign of protests against his ouster.

In all, at least 1,400 people, mostly Morsi supporters, have been killed in violence since his overthrow.

Who is Egypt’s likely next president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?

The Field Marshal’s fate was revealed to him in a dream.

Locked in a conversation with Egypt’s former president, Anwar Sadat, the young military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proclaimed: “I also know that I will be president of the republic”.

Even in his slumber Field Marshal Sisi is a confident man.

We know the details of his dreams because he recounted them “off the record” during an interview with an Egyptian newspaper.

The comments did not stay off the record for long.

In a nation and culture where dream interpretation is common place, the nocturnal wanderings of Field Marshal Sisi only seemed to confirm what most observers see as his inevitable rise to Egypt’s presidency.

He announced he would resign from his post as the nation’s military chief to run for the presidency.

So who is Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?

Born on November 19, 1954, he grew up in Cairo’s Gamaliya district.

Those who knew him say he was driven from an early age.

One resident told Reuters that while other boys played football or smoked, the young Field Marshal and his friends lifted barbells made of metal pipes and rocks.

“He had willpower”, said another former acquaintance.

Naturally, he followed a well-worn path into the military, receiving his commission in 1977.

Over the next three decades Field Marshal Sisi, a pious Muslim, rose through the ranks.

He served as commander of Egypt’s northern military region, and also as director of military intelligence. He spent time studying in the United States, even reportedly authoring a thesis on democracy in the Middle East.

But his true ascension to power came in 2012 when he was appointed chief of the armed forces, ironically by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, whom he would later depose.

Within months, Field Marshal Sisi’s decision to support the protesters in the streets signaled the end for president Morsi.

An interim president was installed, but it was clear that the military was back in charge, with Field Marshal Sisi at the helm.

Since then, a state of repression has returned, worse than anything seen in Egypt’s modern political history.