Sisi to Be Sworn-In as Egypt President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is to be sworn-in on Sunday as Egypt's new president, confirming the de facto status of head of state which he has already held for nearly a year.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Arab royals from the Persian Gulf and African leaders are to attend the 0730 GMT inauguration at the Supreme Constitutional Court, state media said.
The ceremony will be followed by a reception at Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace.
Sisi won the May 26-28 polls with 96.9 percent of the vote, in a crushing defeat for his only rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, who walked away with only three percent of the vote.
The lopsided victory came nearly a year after Sisi toppled president Mohamed Mursi. Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, crushed by a massive crackdown, boycotted the vote.
Sisi's main challenges will be to restore stability and revive the economy after three years of turmoil, following a 2011 uprising that ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak.
The retired field marshal called on Egyptians to "work to return security to this nation," in a television address after his victory was announced Tuesday.
"The future is a blank page, and it is in our hands to fill with what we want... bread, freedom, human dignity, social justice," he said.
But Sisi's opponents fear that under his rule, Egypt will return to an autocratic regime worse than under Mubarak.
Since Mursi's ouster, the crackdown by the military-installed authorities on his supporters has killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands behind bars.
