TheCable

Retired field marshal, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, has been sworn in as Egypt’s president after the elections in May in that he won landslide.

The swearing-in took place at the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo amid tight security.

The former army chief deposed Mohammed Morsi and launched a crackdown on his group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The BBC reported that liberal secular activists, including the April 6 youth movement, which was prominent in the 2011 revolution that ousted long-serving President Hosni Mubarak, shunned the May 26-28 poll in protest at the curtailing of civil rights.

“Mr Sisi secured 96.9% of the vote and his sole challenger, left winger Hamdeen Sabahi received only 3.1% according to the official results.

“However, the turnout was less than 50%.”

Al-Sisi leads a broken and strife-ridden country. And there are fears that he would give little room for the opposition, considering his crackdown on dissenters.

He has promised to improve security as well as the economy by building “26 new tourist resorts, eight new airports and 22 industrial estates”.