CAIRO — Many citizens, experts and observers are wondering if Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's security reshuffling in October was related more to the war on terrorism or to his apparent competition with potential rivals in the upcoming elections.

One week after militants killed at least 16 policemen (The Associated Press reported 54) in Giza province in October 2017, the Interior Ministry gave several high-ranking officials the boot. Sisi named a new top military leader, replacing Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy as armed forces chief of staff and appointing him instead as presidential adviser of strategic planning and crisis management. Some people attributed the change to the continuing violence, but since then there's been a lot of speculation about why Hegazy was replaced.

One theory is that the armed forces were (and continue to be) preparing Hegazy to replace Sisi in the 2018 elections in case Sisi doesn't run for a second term.

Opposition journalist Musa al-Otaibi highlighted such a possibility, among others, in a report published Oct. 29 on The Lens Post website. “Because nothing is impossible in politics, observers say Hegazy’s referral was arranged by both the junta and Sisi in order to keep [Hegazy] away from the political conflict arena and then have him serve as a possible political alternative in the event the situation degenerates for the worse in the country. The current period is witnessing a growing public discontent against Sisi, given the worsening economic and security conditions plaguing the country,” Otaibi wrote.