Sisi has never publicly resisted the relentless praise.

Sisi has never publicly resisted the relentless praise.
In an unpublished segment of an interview with al Masry al-Youm daily that was leaked in an audio online, he spoke of a vision that suggested he was destined
to be a great leader.
"In a dream I had 35 years ago, I was raising a sword with the phrase 'There is no God but God' written on it in red," said Sisi, who rose from a childhood
in the dirt lanes of Cairo's Gamaliya district to the highest rank in the biggest Arab army.
PERILS OF POWER
Born on Nov. 19, 1954, he was the youngest member of the military council that ruled for 18 turbulent months after Mubarak resigned on Feb. 11, 2011.
Western diplomats say Sisi only recently took what they described as the risky decision to run for office. "Thearmy may act if things go wrong and its image
is tarnished. His fall could be sudden and sharp," said a senior European diplomat.
A few months before he unseated Mursi in 2013, Sisi had suggested he would never stage a military takeover, let alone run for president, despite his
suspicions of the Brotherhood.
"With all respect for those who say to the army: 'go into the street', if this happened, we wouldn't be able to speak of Egypt moving forward for 30 or 40
years," Sisi had said.
Cracks have appeared in his support base. Secular activists who backed the army takeover have joined Islamists in criticising what appears to be a systematic
stifling of dissent.
Under Sisi, protesting without permission has become a crime which can be punished by a life sentence.Sisi's election would signal a return to the oppression
of the past, opponents say.
"There are real fears and there are reasons for them," said lawyer and human rights activist Gamal Eid. "The current human rights abuses raise a lot of
worries over Sisi ruling."
Yet amid widespread disillusion with politicians and protesters, Sisi enjoys the backing of the powerful armed forces and the Interior Ministry, as well as
that of many politicians and former Mubarak officials now making a comeback.
Some of Sisi's admirers liken him to former President Gamal Abdul Nasser, a nationalist hero despite leadingEgypt to catastrophic defeat against Israel in
the 1967 war.