Egyptian President

The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. 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. The current president is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been in office since 8 June 2014.

History

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 the 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 as a republic, with Mohamed Naguib as its president. At this point, the Muhammad Ali Dynasty was over in all but name, having effectively lost power when the British assumed colonial rule over Egypt in the late 19th century. Hence, Naguib's presidency marked the beginning of Egypt's independence as a state after a recent history of consistent occupying forces.

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 Menachim 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

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