The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: رئيس جمهورية مصر العربية, romanized: Ra'īs gumhūriyyat Miṣr al-ʻArabiyyah) is the head of state of Egypt. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government.
As it is the supreme magistracy of the country, the presidency is the highest office in Egypt. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of Egypt, have varied over time across different constitutional documents.
Six presidents have assumed the presidency of Egypt after the abolition of the monarchy in 1953, with several short transitional periods. The first was Mohamed Naguib, followed by Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. Following Sadat's assassination came Hosni Mubarak, and then Mohamed Morsi. The current president is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been in office since June 8, 2014.
The first president of Egypt was Mohamed Naguib, who, along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that overthrew King Farouk and marked the end of British colonial rule. Though Farouk's infant son was formally declared by the revolutionaries as King Fuad II, all effective executive power was vested in Naguib and the Revolutionary Command Council. On 18 June 1953, just under a year after the coup d'état, the Council abolished the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and declared Egypt a republic, with Mohamed Naguib as its president.
Naguib resigned as president in November 1954, following a severe rift with the younger military officers who had participated with him in the revolution. Thereafter, the office of president remained vacant until January 1956, when Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected as president via a plebiscite. Nasser would remain as president of Egypt, as well as president of the United Arab Republic, which lasted from 1958 to 1971, until his sudden death in September 1970 at the age of 52.
Nasser was succeeded by his vice president, Anwar Sadat, who was elected by plebiscite in October 1970. Sadat served as president until his assassination in October 1981, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in 1978 for initiating peace talks between the two countries. He was succeeded by his vice president, Hosni Mubarak, who was elected president by plebiscite and remained so for nearly 30 years.
In the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Mubarak, who held office from 14 October 1981 until 11 February 2011, was forced to resign following mass nationwide protests demanding his removal from office. On 10 February 2011 Mubarak transferred presidential powers to his recently appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman. Suleiman's wielding of presidential powers was a momentary formality, as the position of president of Egypt was then officially vacated, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, assumed executive control of the state.
On 30 June 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as President of Egypt, having won the 2012 Egyptian presidential election on 24 June; he was the first president to gain power solely through an election via popular vote. However, Morsi's presidency was short-lived, and slightly more than a year later on 3 July 2013 he was removed from office following mass protests against his rule.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who served as Defense Minister under Morsi's presidency and retained his post after Morsi's removal from office, permanently retired from the Egyptian Armed Forces in 2014 and then went on to win the 2014 presidential election, being sworn in as president on 8 June 2014. He was later re-elected to a second term in 2018 after winning the 2018 presidential election. In April 2019, Egypt's parliament extended presidential terms from four to six years. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was also allowed to run for third term in next election in 2024. In December 2023, President al-Sisi won the 2023 presidential election for a third term in office. He was inaugurated in April 2024.
The Egyptian Constitution has had various forms since the establishment of the republic in 1953. In all iterations of the republican constitution until 2005, the method of electing the president is based on that of the French Fifth Republic. Both the pre-revolution Egyptian Civil Code, and the semi-presidential system of government adopted after the revolution were strongly influenced by the legal and political tradition of France. In this two-stage system, the Egyptian legislature, the National Assembly (a name also inspired by its French counterpart), nominates one of a number of candidates for the presidency.
A candidate needs at least a two-thirds majority in the Assembly in order to win the nomination. In the second stage, the candidate is confirmed in office by popular plebiscite of all eligible voters in the country. Egypt maintained this system even after it was abandoned by France in 1962 in Favour of direct presidential elections, eliminating the role of the legislature in the election of the French president. In the Egyptian Constitution of 1971, the name of the National Assembly was changed to the People's Assembly.
2005 and 2007 constitutional amendments
In 2005 and 2007, constitutional amendments were made. Principles in the amended constitution include:
Election of the president of the republic by direct secret ballot by citizens who have the right to vote.
Ensuring that multiple candidates be put forward for the people to choose from.
Ensuring the credibility of the nomination process.
Providing the opportunity for political parties to put forward one of their leaders to contest the first presidential elections to be held in light of the amendment.
The establishment of a presidential election commission that would enjoy complete independence to supervise the election process.