Sisi eyes big turnout as Egypt vote wraps up
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
CAIRO, May 27, (AFP): Egypt was wrapping up a presidential election Tuesday with frontrunner ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi eyeing a strong turnout to give credibility to his overthrow of the elected Islamist president.
The retired field marshal's supporters have expressed fears of a low turnout after the first day of voting, as Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and secular dissidents called for a boycott.
As polls opened for the second and final day of voting, authorities announced that they were declaring a public holiday and extending polling hours until 1900 GMT to encourage voters to cast their ballots.
A comfortable win for former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over his sole rival leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi has never been seriously in doubt.
But Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, subjected to a brutal police crackdown in which hundreds of its supporters have been killed, has called for boycott and said it will not recognise the election's outcome.
So too have key activists behind the Arab Spring uprising that toppled long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011, who fear Sisi is an autocrat in the making.
The interior ministry said that turnout on the first day of voting reached about 16 million out of the country's 53 million eligible voters.
But several Cairo polling stations visited by AFP were deserted in the first hours of voting on Tuesday.
"I don't want to be part of those responsible for all those people who died," Tarek Salim told AFP, explaining his decision not to vote over tea at a Cairo cafe.
Fellow boycotter Diaa Hussein complained that the election offered no real choice. "Sisi didn't leave a chance for anyone else to win," he said.
Sisi issued a personal plea for a large turnout after casting his own ballot on Monday.
"The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow," he said, surrounded by cheering supporters.
The rival candidates have portrayed the vote as a choice between stability and the freedoms promised by the Arab Spring.