Empty streets as voter apathy marks Egypt’s presidential polls

CAIRO: At a crowded crossroads on the edge of a poor Cairo district, blaring music and a news ticker on a giant screen urged people to vote for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But down its dusty alleyways, there was no such fanfare.

While the presidential election that is set to grant Sisi a second term, it registered little interest – and some disdain – in working-class Boulaq.

“On this entire street, I think only five or six people have voted,” Hazem Abu Ismail, 28, said. “We’ve got nothing to gain from going to vote.”

At the end of Abu Ismail’s road, a narrow dirt alley with washing hanging out of dust-caked windows, only a trickle of voters, mostly older men, entered a school converted into a polling station to cast their ballots.

“The election is all an act. Maybe it’s a class thing – it’s mainly betteroff people who are voting,” Abu Ismail said.

Many Egyptians complain that austerity measures enacted during Sisi’s first term, especially a steep currency devaluation, have left them much worse off.

Young men, many of whom fear Sisi’s second term will bring more austerity, said they did not wish to vote for a president they did not support, allowing him to claim a stronger mandate.

“This gives you an idea of turnout – how many of us have ink on our fingers?” 31-year-old plumber Ali said, referring to the mark left on people’s hands after voting.

“We voted in 2012, but what did it do? Corruption still exists and we’re worse off than ever,” he said.

That vote brought President Mohamed Mursi to power after a 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The subdued atmosphere near polling stations in Boulaq in western Cairo and other poor districts on the other side of the Nile River contrasted with that in upmarket neighbourhoods like Zamalek and Heliopolis, where more voters turned out, some chanting slogans supporting Sisi.

Turnout in this week’s election is seen as the main focus in the absence of any serious contest after Sisi’s main challengers quit from the race apparently under pressure.

“If I voted, I’d spoil my ballot by ticking both boxes. I don’t want either of them,” Abu Mostafa, 51, said.

In Sharbiya, a mixed working-class Muslim and Christian neighbourhood, a group of people chanting pro-Sisi slogans and waving Egyptian flags toured streets urging residents to vote. However, Reuters saw a total of fewer than 10 voters enter three different polling stations on Monday.

Not everyone was apathetic. Mohamed Hussein, 40, a shopkeeper in Sharabiya, said he had not voted but planned to cast a ballot for Sisi.

Asked why, he replied that Sisi’s economic measures were important, even if prices had risen. – Reuters