El-Sisi vows to leave in 2030, wants Military Academy to train successors
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Saturday that he will step down when his term ends in 2030, calling the matter “completely settled.” In the same speech, he floated a law under which the Military Academy would spend 30 months training a select group of PhD holders aged 40 to 50, from whom voters would then choose his successor.
“My term as head of state ends in 2030, if I live that long. This is completely settled and not open to discussion,” El-Sisi told the graduation ceremony for the first cohort of the Egyptian Military Academy. The remarks echo earlier pledges to leave the constitution untouched, made after a growing number of his supporters called for presidential term limits to be amended.
El-Sisi said he was convinced of his decision but would not hand over the state until the academy had produced a generation of leaders ready to take responsibility. “I won’t leave the Egyptian state unless it is well stocked with capable people of its own,” he said.
Under his proposal, a law would set out how candidates are selected from an elite pool of doctorate holders, who would then undergo 30 months of training at the academy. After that, he said, “the Egyptian people will have the chance to vote and choose from among them.”
El-Sisi rooted the idea in Article 200 of the constitution, which charges the armed forces with safeguarding the constitution and democracy. He read the article aloud: “The armed forces belong to the people. Their duty is to protect the country, preserve its security and territorial integrity, safeguard the constitution and democracy, maintain the basic pillars of the state and its civilian nature, and protect the people’s gains and the rights and freedoms of individuals. The state alone shall establish these forces, and no individual, entity, body or group may establish military or paramilitary formations, units or organizations.”
“When we chose to emphasize this paragraph in the constitution, the aim was to shield the Egyptian state from any attempt at infiltration, and from people taking charge who cannot carry the responsibility of this state, or who don’t even understand what a state is,” he said.
“I insisted on it at the time. There may have been some debate in the constitution drafting committee over this paragraph in particular, and I told them then that it was there so the armed forces, a trusted national institution, would be responsible for the country’s resources and for preventing, and I mean preventing, any violation of the constitution or of democracy,” he added.
Article 200 did not, however, contain that language when the constitution was adopted in 2014. The clause giving the armed forces responsibility for “safeguarding the constitution and democracy, maintaining the basic pillars of the state and its civilian nature, and protecting the people’s gains and the rights and freedoms of individuals” was added in the 2019 amendments.
El-Sisi went on to explain the plan in detail. “God willing, we have about 43 months left until 2030. We’re talking about 30 months of preparation for PhD holders from reputable universities, whether Egyptian or foreign,” he said. The mechanism would be designed by the speaker of parliament together with “a select group of trusted thinkers and politicians,” along with the ministers of higher education and justice, who would draft a law governing the election of candidates who meet those conditions.
“They will spend 30 months here at the academy, learning what a state is, what its resources are and how to protect them,” he said.
He did not say whether the program would become a condition for running for president or would simply groom a pool of potential candidates. Later in the speech, though, his tone hardened: “Under the constitutional text I just read (Article 200), no one with ulterior motives, no traitor and no criminal will ever take charge.”
The proposal builds on a policy the government has pursued for several years of putting applicants for civilian jobs through tests and training programs at the academy, in fields ranging from education and the judiciary to religious endowments.
At a graduation ceremony for new members of judicial bodies on Sept. 17, El-Sisi said: “We said we would treat the academy as the gateway to positions in the Egyptian state.” He said the policy covered the judiciary, the Foreign Ministry and the Administrative Control Authority, as well as jobs at the finance, transport and justice ministries, with selection criteria tailored to each post.
Saturday’s remarks were the third time in a matter of days that El-Sisi has said his presidency will end in 2030. On Wednesday, at the armed forces’ educational symposium marking the anniversary of the October War, he said he opposed amending the constitution. On Thursday, at a Police Academy graduation, he repeated that he would serve out his term until 2030.
Political reactions tracked by Al Manassa have been mixed. The Civil Democratic Movement welcomed El-Sisi’s pledge not to touch the constitution while calling for conditions that allow fair political competition and a peaceful transfer of power. Researchers and analysts, meanwhile, warned of a possible repeat of the 2019 amendments.
The 2014 constitution limits presidents to two terms. But the 2019 amendments extended each term from four years to six and added a transitional article allowing “the current president,” as an exception, to run for a third term ending in 2030. They also tightened the president’s grip on the judiciary and expanded the military’s role in political life.