With turnout low, Egypt extends presidential vote
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 1 month AGO
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Tuesday extended its presidential election for a third day after reports of low voter turnout threatened to deprive the all-but-certain winner, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, of the overwhelming show of public support he seeks.
Opponents and observers said the thin voting showed the extent of discontent with el-Sissi and his campaign, not just among his Islamist foes but among many in the public who fear the retired field marshal offers no solutions for Egypt’s woes and will return it to the autocratic ways of Hosni Mubarak, ousted in a 2011 uprising after 29 years in power.
Throughout Tuesday, the second day of voting, officials and supporters of el-Sissi in the media urged voters to go to the polls. Scenes of empty polling stations drove el-Sissi supporters in the country’s TV stations into a froth, scolding Egyptians for not turning out. “Where are the people?” one talk show host shouted on a pro-military TV station.
There has never been doubt that the 59-year-old el-Sissi would win the vote over his sole opponent, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. But he and his backers have sought a large turnout to send a message to the West — as well as to his domestic opponents — that his ouster last summer of Egypt’s first freely elected president, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, was not a coup but a popular revolution. Millions went out in protests against Morsi before el-Sissi removed him.
For the past 10 months, the government and media have been whipping up adulation for el-Sissi, depicting him as the country’s savior. They have praised his crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters, which has killed hundreds and put thousands in prison, as part of a war on terrorism. The military has strongly backed him, as have powerful Gulf allies.
Voters who backed him as the only man capable of ruling.
“We want Egypt, and el-Sissi is Egypt,” said 40-year-old Seham Sayed, one of around a dozen women waiting at a polling station in the heavily populated district of Imbaba.
The head of the election commission told the MBC-Misr TV station that early estimates put turnout at 35 percent of the nearly 54 million voters. That would be a significant drop from the 2012 election that Morsi won, which had a turnout of just under 52 percent.
The Brotherhood called a boycott of the election, meaning most of their supporters stayed away from the polls.
But many beyond the ranks of Islamists said they didn’t vote out of unhappiness with el-Sissi and with an election that gave them no options.
In his campaign, el-Sissi offered few concrete solutions for Egypt’s devastated economy and scolded Egyptians to make sacrifices. He touted his military discipline and made clear he would tolerate no dissent or protests that could undermine stability. Although appealing to his supporters, his tough tone fed worries among some that he will be a throwback to the Mubarak, especially with arrests of not only Islamists but of other critics of the military.
Some said his campaign suggested an arrogance that took voters for granted He made only TV appearances, without going into the streets.
“Why would I go and vote and give them legitimacy when they actually didn’t respect me?” Loai Omran, an architect, said of the el-Sissi camp. “They didn’t respect the constitution ... They didn’t respect human rights.”
A 44-year-old farmer, Ramadan, said el-Sissi paid little attention to his trade— and he didn’t like the heavy presence of Mubarak-era officials backing el-Sissi. “Look around who is going out for him — men of the (former) ruling party. Nothing has changed,” he said, speaking on condition he only be identified by his first name for fear of trouble from neighbors.
The Interior Ministry, in charge of police, estimated turnout at 30 percent from Monday and the first five hours of voting Tuesday, spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif told The Associated Press.
Others said the rate was far lower. Sabahi’s campaign, citing its representatives at polling stations, estimated turnout on the first day at only 10-15 percent. It called the weak voting a “clear message by the people and youth ... rejecting the attempt to bring back old regime policies.”
The election commission presented its decision to extend the voting another day as a response to demands by would-be voters. Commission officials said they received complaints about the extreme heat and that migrant workers could not vote because rules make it difficult to cast ballots away from one’s hometown.
Sabahi’s campaign protested the extension, saying it raised questions about the election’s integrity and seemed aimed at “interfering in numbers and participation rates.” Seemingly to ward off criticism, El-Sissi’s campaign also raised an official objection to the extension, insisting it was not needed.
Nesrine Mahmoud, a 34-year-old housewife from a low-income Cairo neighborhood, said she “loved” el-Sissi as a military man and for his removal of Morsi. But she voted for Sabahi. She said she grew disillusioned with el-Sissi during his campaign, especially the way he shot down any criticism during interviews and offered her no concrete program to solve economic problems.
“How would there be democracy that way?”
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