CAIRO — The spotlight is on Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after his landslide victory in last week's presidential elections. Despite a low voter turnout, the Sisi campaign did manage to win the support of certain target groups including rural tribes — as Al-Monitor reported last week — and some of the most impoverished in its cities. Now, many of those who gave their support to Sisi want something in return.

For the families who were forcibly evicted from their homes in Ezbet El-Nakhl — a maze of informal housing settlement that stood on the edge of northern Cairo until Feb. 18 — Sisi represents hope, but he has yet to deliver. However, statements by the president-elect himself suggest ordinary Egyptians, and particularly citizens living below the poverty line, could be about to face hard times. 

Al-Monitor first met the families outside the Journalists' Syndicate, a 10-minute walk from Tahrir Square in the smoggy heart of Cairo. Horreya El-Gida'an (Freedom for the Brave), a relatively new coalition of January 25 Revolution activist groups, lawyers and rights campaigners was holding a news conference against the protest law on the steps outside.

"Hey foreigner, is this a Brotherhood protest?" half-shouted teenager Walaa, after picking us out of the crowd.