EGYPT VOTES AMID TIGHT VIGIL
Elderly Egyptian women cast their ballots in a referendum on constitutional amendments in Cairo, on the first day of a three-day poll, held under tight security on Saturday. —
cairo — Egyptians voted on Saturday in a referendum that aims to cement the rule of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi who presents himself as a rock of stability in a turbulent region.
Voters were being asked to back amendments to the constitution to allow Sisi, 64, to run for another six-year term while boosting his control over the judiciary and giving the military even greater influence in political life.
At a polling station in Manyal, a Cairo suburb overlooking the Nile, Mohamed Abdel Salam, 45, told AFP he was voting enthusiastically in support of the changes.
“I don’t care about the presidential terms,” he said.
“Sisi could stay forever as long as he’s doing his job... and he has already done a lot”
The three-day referendum bucks the trend of North Africa’s renewed uprisings, in which mass pro-democracy protests this month swept away veteran presidents in Algeria
I don’t care about the presidential terms. Sisi could stay forever as long as he’s doing his job... and he has already done a lot
Mohamed Abdel Salam, An Egyptian voter
and Sudan. Sisi himself was among the first to vote when polls opened, casting his ballot in the upmarket Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.
In Shubra, a working-class neighbourhood of the capital, dozens of voters, mostly women carrying their children, queued outside a polling station in the local high school.
In Cairo, troops and police were deployed in numbers although the interior ministry declined to give any nationwide figures.
Egypt is still battling a hardened insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that has seen attacks in Cairo and other cities.
Sisi has argued that he needs longer to complete the job of restoring security and stability after the turmoil that followed the overthrow of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring of 2011. Out on the streets, Sisi’s supporters waved flags bearing their campaign motto: “Do the Right” thing, as they pressed passers-by to turn out and vote ‘Yes’.
The Egyptian leader won his first term as president in 2014, a year after he led the army in overthrowing elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against his single turbulent year in power.
Standing virtually unopposed after the disqualification or withdrawal of all realistic challengers, he was re-elected in March 2018 with more than 97 per cent.
Pro-Sisi campaign volunteers handed out boxed meals at four different polling stations in Cairo to voters after they had cast their ballots, AFP reporters said.
A parliamentarian greeted voters and volunteers gave out vouchers for the meals in the Shubra district.
In Manyal, a DJ blared loud patriotic songs extolling the virtues of Egypt under Sisi’s leadership, including a new song by iconic Lebanese diva Nancy Ajram dedicated to Egypt and called
(What a fine man).
But not everyone is upbeat about the changes.
Sporting casual attire, a voter in his mid-30s told AFP in Cairo: “We are all staff in the same company and we were instructed by management to go vote.
“I want to say ‘No’... on extending the presidential terms and the amendments related to the judiciary,” he said declining to give his name for fear of repercussions.
He pointed to his bosses nearby who were making sure employees were voting. —