President of Egypt

The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt (Arabic: رئيس جمهورية مصر العربية, romanized: Ra'īs Jumhūriyyat 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.

Six presidents took over the presidency of Egypt after the abolition of the monarchy in 1953, in periods that included short transitional periods. They began with Mohamed Naguib, then Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Anwar Sadat. He was followed by Hosni Mubarak, and then Mohamed Morsi. The current president is Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has been in office since 8 June 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.