Elections in Egypt
By: V-Dem Staff
Feb 09, 2018
With elections in Egypt set to take place in March, the current president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi faces virtually no opposition to his reelection campaign. While his victory seems certain, the president’s popularity nevertheless has dropped since he was elected in 2014. Egyptian civil society has been strongly curtailed and the country was branded as “one of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists” by Reporters Without Borders.
This week’s graph examines the Egyptian environment for civil society and journalists. V-Dem’s indicator on the harassment of journalists analyses whether individual journalists face harassment while engaged in legitimate journalistic activities. It ranges from zero to four, with the highest score indicating no harassment. The indicator on print and broadcast media demonstrates how often major media outlets criticize the government. CSO repression indicator describes government’s attempts to repress civil society, where lower scores translate in heavy persecution of civil society members.
During former President Mubarak’s government (1981-2011), harassment of journalists occurred constantly, though coupled with a steady increase in criticism of the government in some important media outlets. Repression of civil society organization members during this period occurred substantially. The year 2013 saw sharp decreases in all three of these indicators. Sisi’s term in office, which began in 2014, saw a slight decrease in harassment of journalists in 2015, though Egypt still scores poorly on this indicator.
If you want to learn more about the post-Arab spring situation in Egypt and the region, use our online analysis tools at v-dem.net.
