CAIRO: Protests erupted overnight in Cairo and other Egyptian cities calling for the removal of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a rare show of dissent quickly quashed by authorities.

Hundreds of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday night, chanting slogans including “Leave, Sisi” and demanding the “fall of the regime”.

At least 74 people were arrested, a security source said, with plain-clothes police officers patrolling the side streets of downtown Cairo.

In addition to Cairo, demonstrations held in several cities, including Alexandria, Damietta, Mansoura and Suez

After overnight clashes with the protesters, security personnel on Saturday maintained tight control of Tahrir Square — the epicentre of the 2011 revolution that unseated long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The country effectively banned protests under a 2013 law and a state of emergency is still in full effect.

“I think it’s safe to say that the events of the past few weeks, including the development last night, pose the most serious legitimacy crisis facing Sisi,” said Nael Shama, a Cairo-based political analyst.

The protests came on the back of an online call put out by Mohamed Aly, a disgruntled exiled Egyptian businessman, demanding Sisi be toppled.

The construction contractor has been posting videos from Spain that have gone viral since early September, accusing Sisi and the military of rampant corruption.

The president flatly denied the allegations last week at a youth conference and sought to assure Egyptians that he “was honest and faithful” to his people and the military.

In Aly’s latest video posted on Friday morning on his growing social media accounts, he urged Egyptians to head to the streets after a highly anticipated Super Cup football match between Cairo powerhouses Al Ahly and Zamalek.

“No one shouted bread, freedom, social justice like in 2011, they escalated straight to ‘Leave’ from the first minute,” Shama noted.

Thousands shared footage on social media documenting the demonstrations, which sprang up in several cities including sizeable crowds blocking traffic in Alexandria, Al-Mahalla, Damietta, Mansoura and Suez.

Shama, who wrote a book on Egypt’s foreign policy, said the “totally organic” nature of the small-scale protests was “unprecedented”.

“This is the first time people take to the streets in many years but I am not sure it will be the last,” he added.

Under the rule of general-turned-president Sisi, authorities have launched a broad crackdown on dissidents, jailing thousands of Islamists as well as secular activists and popular bloggers.

Sisi led the military ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and won back-to-back landslide elections after running virtually unopposed.

He has regularly invoked security and stability as hallmarks of his reign in contrast to the situations in regional hot spots such as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

During last week’s youth conference, Sisi again took the opportunity to warn of the dangers of protesting.

On television on Friday night, boisterous and pro-Sisi host Amr Adib lambasted Aly, the businessman, showing footage of him allegedly in a drunken stupor.

Adib urged his fellow countrymen to “take care of the country... because the Muslim Brotherhood want to raze it to the ground”.

The Islamist group, once considered one of Egypt’s most organised political forces, was outlawed as a terrorist group in 2013 after Morsi’s overthrow.

Egyptians quickly took to social media to criticise Adib, a vocal backer of Mubarak during the 2011 revolution, for dismissing the protesters as “people against the country”.

Discontent over rising prices has been swelling in Egypt, where Sisi’s government has imposed strict austerity measures since 2016 as part of a $12-billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund.

Nearly one in three Egyptians lives below the poverty line on less than $1.4 a day, according to official figures released in July. Human Rights Watch urged Egyptian authorities on Saturday to “protect the right” to protest peacefully and demanded that those arrested be released.

Sisi flew on Friday night to New York, where he is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly next week.

The president’s office did not comment on the protests, when asked by AFP on Saturday. “Now the ball is in the government’s court,” said Shama, the analyst. “They have to respond somehow.”

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2019