Egypt’s presidential vote starts with overseas polls
Egyptian expatriates will kick off the presidential election on Friday when they begin casting their ballots at diplomatic missions in 124 countries.
Polling booths will be open from 9am to 9pm. According to Egypt’s statistics agency, there are 9.5 million Egyptians living outside the country, including about 765,000 in the UAE.
The overseas voting triggers the first of two 48-hour “campaign silence” periods mandated by Egyptian law, said Mahmoud El Sherif, the National Elections Authority spokesman. “No electoral campaigning activity is allowed in the media during the silence period, yet public discussion … is welcomed.”
The second silence will take effect before three days’ polling begins in Egypt on March 26.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a supporter of Mr El Sisi who leads the small Ghad party, are the only names on the ballot.
With Mr El Sisi expected to win a second term by an overwhelming margin, the only speculation among analysts is about how many of the 59 million eligible voters will take part in the election.
“I’m calling on citizens to participate in these elections,” Mr El Sisi said on Wednesday as he inspected the new Crisis Management Centre at the interior ministry’s Cairo headquarters, “regardless of their views and opinions. This [election] is an expression of their free will and a contribution to the building of the homeland.”
In January, Mr El Sisi issued a thinly veiled threat to those calling for a boycott of the election, saying he would act against anyone who tried to mess with the country’s security.
Mr El Sisi won 23,780,104 votes in the 2014 presidential election, capturing nearly 97 per cent of the vote with a turnout rate of 47.5 per cent.
To boost numbers this time, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce is asking private-sector companies to give employees paid leave to vote, a practice already widespread for the more than six million public sector workers.
“I realise I am a little-known figure to many, I hope only to achieve an honourable result,” Mr Moussa told the daily Al Ahram on Thursday. He said he refused to give interviews to foreign media after international outlets focused on allegations of human-rights breaches and an election boycott call issued by opposition groups.
The official State Information Service is incensed over a recent BBC report on humanrights infringements, including police torture, and has called for a boycott of the UK broadcaster.
Tension between the authorities and foreign media escalated this week as the General Prosecution set up hotline numbers for people to send complaints about “fake news” that “aims to endanger the nation’s security or public interests”, either as text messages or through WhatsApp.
Parliamentarians said they were concerned that social media was undermining a national political consensus and that the persistence of the political opposition groups was supported by foreign funds.
Next week, Egypt’s cabinet is expected to discuss regulations banning NGOs from engaging in political activity and mandating state approval for receiving foreign funds.
“We are not expecting this government to loosen up after these elections,” said Amr Abdel Rahman, former spokesman for human rights lawyer Khaled Ali, who dropped his presidential bid in January.