Egypt's Governor of Monufiya, Hesham Abd al-Bast, declared on Sunday his confidence that voters in his governorate will support Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the 2018 presidential election, after numerous major projects were successfully initiated and carried out during Sisi's first term in office. Speaking at a conference organized by the ‘Kolena Maak men agl Misr' campaign (We all stand by you for Egypt), al-Bast stated that Monufiya voters are nationalists, and assured that they will support Sisi for a second presidential term. Declaring a similar message, media professional Ahmed Shober noted that in the 2014 presidential election, Monufiya voters' support for Sisi was the highest in the country. In his first term, Sisi's government administered electricity projects to light up rural areas across different governorates in the country. Shober added that it also carried out efforts to deliver state subsidies to their beneficiaries. Despite three presidential hopefuls announcing their candidacy for the 2018 election– rights lawyer Khalid Ali, Colonel Ahmed Konsowa, and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq– sitting president Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy for the April's election. Sisi, however, is widely expected to run for a second term in office. He previously stated that he will only consider a second presidential term if the Egyptian people are in favor of it. "I can never not respond to the will of Egyptians. I'm under the will of the Egyptian people," affirmed Sisi. "If it is their will that I run for presidency again, I will." Recent research from the public opinion research group, the Baseera Center indicates the wider Egyptian population would indeed be in favor of a second term for Sisi, claiming 75 percent of Egyptians are satisfied with Sisi's overall performance. Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm
