After Sisi’s purge of rivals, is he safe from the generals?

A few days before Ahmed Shafiq announced his short-lived run for the Egyptian presidency, a meeting was held in Cairo to decide who should mount a serious campaign to unseat the incumbent, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

A number of senior former army generals and civil society figures were present, including Sami Anan, the former chief of staff. Also there was Magdi Hatatah, one of Anan’s predecessors as army chief of staff, and Ossama Askaar, the former commander of the third army, the Middle East Eye has been told.

The meeting talked at first of backing a civilian candidate, but could not agree on one. They agreed then to support Shafiq. Anan kept silent. When Shafiq’s candidacy crashed in flames (he and his daughter had been threatened with corruption smears) the group who attended the meeting shifted their support to Anan.

Anan swiftly amassed a wide spectrum of supporters. They included the political and business clan around former president Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal and figures in the Egyptian opposition.

Read the whole story from Middle East Eye.

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