Egypt Extends Presidential Elections

Local Editor

Egypt gave voters an extra day to cast ballots for a president Tuesday, in a surprise move amid a reportedly low turnout in the first election since the overthrow of the Islamist leader.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the ex-army chief who toppled Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year, is the clear frontrunner. But his campaign had hoped for a large turnout as a decisive show of support.

After reports of a meager turnout on Monday's first day of voting, his backers and sympathetic media harangued people to go and vote as Islamists had urged a boycott.

One television anchor, the ultra-nationalist Tawfiq Okasha, went as far as suggesting those who fail to vote should "be shot".

The decision to extend the voting into Wednesday was made to "give a chance to the largest possible number of voters to cast their ballots," said an electoral official.

The commission said it extended the election because of a "heatwave that resulted in a crowding of voters during the evening hours".

A comfortable win for Sisi over his sole rival, the leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, has never been seriously in doubt.

As polling stations closed at 1800 GMT, Sabbahi slammed the extension, saying it raised "questions... about the integrity of the process".

And Sisi's campaign itself filed a complaint against the extension, it said in a statement without elaborating.

Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, subjected to a police crackdown that has killed hundreds of its supporters, called for boycott and said it would not recognise the outcome.

So too have key activists behind the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011. They fear Sisi is an autocrat in the making.

The interior ministry said the first day's turnout was about 16 million out of the country's 53 million eligible voters.

Interim prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab denied there was a low turnout, saying "participation is good".

But some Cairo polling stations were deserted on Tuesday morning.

"I don't want to be part of those responsible for all those people who died," Tarek Salim told AFP at a Cairo cafe.

Another abstainer, Diaa Hussein, complained there was no real choice. "Sisi didn't leave a chance for anyone else to win," he said.

Gamal Abdel Gawad, an analyst at the American University of Cairo, said the extension was unnecessary and "affects the credibility of the election".

"When the result of an election is already known, there is very little incentive for voters to come out and vote."

Source: AFP	27-05-2014 - 22:24 Last updated 27-05-2014 - 22:24

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