Sisi promises to leave in 2030 while putting Egypt's military at the centre of choosing what follows

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says his presidency will end in 2030 and that Egypt's constitution will not be amended to extend it again. The pledge is consequential because constitutional changes in 2019 lengthened presidential terms and allowed him to remain in office after earlier promises not to prolong his rule.

The proposed transition is not an open succession. Sisi wants a committee overseen by the parliamentary speaker to select PhD holders for 30 months of training at the Egyptian Military Academy. Graduates would be prepared for roles ranging from president and minister to governor and member of parliament. Egyptians would eventually be able to choose among them, he said, but he did not explain how candidates would reach a ballot or what would happen to contenders outside the programme.

Mada Masr reports that the announcement surprised even state institutions. Three informed sources described a very small circle outside the principal agencies managing Sisi's exit. They said officials initially launched spontaneous appeals for him to remain because, without security guidance, appearing to welcome his departure seemed dangerous. The presidency itself briefly replaced the specific phrase “until 2030” with the more ambiguous “until the last day of his rule” before Sisi restated the date.

The deeper issue is the authority being constructed around the successor. Sources considered a system in which the armed forces acts as guardian of the constitutional order, potentially through a continuing supervisory body. Such an arrangement would move Egypt away from direct presidential rule toward a president constrained by a military institution above the office—and would probably require another constitutional change.

A declared endpoint creates political space: rival parts of the regime must now plan for life after Sisi, and opposition figures see a possible opening. But a managed field of military-academy graduates is a mechanism for controlling competition, not evidence that power will be transferred freely.