CNN : The Egyptian election The first day of voting in Egypts presidential election was relatively quiet, state media reported Monday, though one man connected to a campaign was shot to death. Polls will reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday for the last day of voting. Egyptians are choosing between two candidates: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahy. Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb declared Tuesday a public holiday in compliance to citizens wishes, state TV reported. The decision is thought to be a move to increase turnout. Public service ads, media campaigns and the electoral ads of the el-Sisi campaign stressed that voting is a patriotic duty. The election was called because Mohamed Morsy, Egypts first freely elected president, was removed from power in July in a popular military coup. A man working for el-Sisis campaign was fatally shot near Cairo on Monday, Interior Ministry spokesman Alaa Mahmoud said. Mohamed Fathy, 35, was getting out of a taxi in the village of Kerdassa on the western edge of Cairo when he was shot in the head by unknown gunmen, Mahmoud said. Fathy was active in the el-Sisi presidential campaign and was a member of the Tamarod political movement, according to a statement from Tamarod. Police are investigating, but Assistant Interior Minister for Information Abdel-Fattah Othman has said the slaying has nothing to do with the election process. Tamarod has blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, which had held a small protest in Kerdassa earlier in the day. Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, criticized the election: What you have in Egypt now is not democracy but a militacracy. ... What we have now is Mubarak coming back. Sisi is Mubarak version 2014, and that is the tragedy. Mahmoud also said a bomb was detected and defused at the Ahmed Sayed I school polling station in Giza. Egypts state-run news agency MENA reported clashes in a polling station at Umraniya district but said they didnt disrupt the vote. Beni Suef Security Director Ibrahim Hadib said that seven members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested for trying to disrupt the electoral process in that town, MENA reported. A number of people hurled Molotov cocktails at the headquarters of el-Sisis campaign in the town of Hosh Issa. No material damage or casualties were reported, MENA said. The Sabahy campaign similarly reported disruptions. The day has sadly witnessed many violations observed, documented and announced by the campaign, led by banning Sabahy delegates from entering polling centers, collective voting, physical assaults against delegates and lawyers, let alone some cases of intervention by police and army forces, it said in a statement. The campaign hopes that these violations would not repeat tomorrow. On the other hand , Reuters : Egypts former military chief doesnt mince words when he describes what would happen if he wins this months presidential vote. In a taped interview broadcast on Egyptian satellite networks Monday, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to finish off the Muslim Brotherhood if hes elected, arguing thats what his countrys people want. And he said he had no choice but to run for President. Due to the challenges facing Egypt and the targeting of Egypt from inside and outside of the country ... any responsible patriot has a duty toward his country and its future, and has the opportunity to come forward to protect this country, and this people, and their future, el-Sisi said. The second part of the interview is due to air Tuesday El-Sisi deposed Egypts first freely elected leader, President Mohamed Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood, last year following mass protests against Morsys rule. The officer is popular among Egyptians who supported the armys decision to remove Morsy from power. His supporters see him as the kind of strongman needed to end the turmoil dogging Egypt since a popular uprising ended Hosni Mubaraks three decades of one-man rule in 2011. In Mondays interview, he said there had been two attempts to assassinate him, but that didnt stop him from wanting to run for President. I believe in fate, he said. I am not afraid. He appeared relaxed in the interview, talking about his children and saying his wife had urged him to seek election. El-Sisi resigned from his military post in March to run for the presidency. Hell face just one challenger at the polls, Hamdeen Sabahi, who also had harsh words for the Muslim Brotherhood when he spoke to CNN last month, accusing the group of being responsible for bloodshed and sponsoring terrorism in Egypt. But Sabahi said he would scrap a controversial law enacted last fall and backed by el-Sisi, which places severe restrictions on demonstration in Egypt. I will issue a law that protects and regulates, not prevents, demonstration. And I will release all the innocent people who were convicted according to this unconstitutional law, and particularly college students in Egypt who were angry because of the excessive force used by the police, he said. In Mondays interview, broadcast on the Egyptian satellite channels CBC and ONTV, el-Sisi defended the protest law, saying that irresponsible demonstrations threaten the state. Egyptians are scheduled to head to the polls to vote for President on May 26 and 27. Parliamentary elections will be held , soon afterward, but dates have not yet been determined, Egypts state-run Ahram Online reported Monday. Meanwhile , Egypts presidential election was extended by a day on Tuesday in an effort to boost lower than expected turnout that threatened to undermine the credibility of the frontrunner, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. After Sisi called for record voter participation, low turnout would be seen at home and abroad as a setback for the field marshal who toppled Egypts first freely elected leader, the Muslim Brotherhoods Mohamed Mursi. The two-day vote was originally due to conclude on Tuesday at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) but was extended until Wednesday to allow the greatest number possible to vote, state media reported. Sisi faces only one challenger in the election: the leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in a 2012 vote won by Mursi and was seen as a long-shot in the race against an army man who became popular after ending Mursis divisive year in office. I was going to vote for Sisi because he will be the president anyway, and because I was grateful to him for removing the Brotherhood from power, said Hani Ali, 27, who works in the private sector. But now I wont go as I felt people are unhappy with the chaos of the past months and are not as pro-Sisi as I thought. Lines outside polling stations in various parts of Cairo were short, and in some cases no voters could be seen on Tuesday, the second day of voting that had already been extended once, with polls originally due to close at 9.00 p.m. Showing signs of panic, the military-backed government had launched a determined effort to get out the vote, declaring Tuesday a public holiday. The justice ministry said Egyptians who did not vote would be fined, and train fares were waived in an effort to boost the numbers. Local media loyal to the government chided the public for not turning out in large enough numbers. One prominent TV commentator said people who did not vote were traitors, traitors, traitors. Al-Azhar, a state-run body that is Egypts highest Islamic authority, said failure to vote was to disobey the nation, state TV reported. Pope Tawadros, head of Egypts Coptic church, also appeared on state TV to urge voters to head to the polls. Turnout in the 2012 election won by Mursi was 52 percent - a level this vote must exceed for Sisi to enjoy full political legitimacy, said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University. Were it to fall short, then he will have failed to read the political scene and his miscalculation has to be corrected through reconciliation, he said. Sisi had called for a turnout of 40 million, or 80 percent of the electorate. Distancing Sisi from the vote extension, his campaign announced he had objected to the decision. HERO TO SOME, VILLAIN TO OTHERS Sisis supporters see him as a decisive figure who can steer Egypt out of three years of turmoil. He became a hero to many for removing Mursi after mass protests against his rule. But the Islamist opposition sees him as the mastermind of a bloody coup, and a broad crackdown on dissent has alienated others. Trying to lower sky-high expectations in the run-up to the election, Sisi had stressed the need for austerity and self-sacrifice, a message that cost him some support and drew some ridicule in a nation of 85 million steeped in poverty. He had announced his priorities as fighting Islamist militants who have taken up arms since Mursis removal, and reviving an economy battered by more than three years of turmoil that has driven away tourists and investors. He is the man of the hour, a man of decision, he is a nationalist and clean man, said Fatima Boultiya, a woman in her 60s voting in Cairo at a mostly deserted polling station. Radwa Abu al Azem, a 31-year-ld writer voting at the same polling station for Sabahi, said: We dont want Sisi. We dont want military rule, we want a civilian state after 60 years. Sisi was widely seen as the most powerful figure in the interim government that has waged a bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood, declaring it an enemy of the state, and putting its leaders on trial on charges that carry the death penalty. He had been lionized by state and privately owned media, which have helped build a personality cult around the former intelligence chief about whom little was known until last year: his face now appears on chocolates, posters and key-rings. On Sisis Facebook page, admirers posted hundreds of pictures of themselves wearing Egyptian flags or patriotic T-shirts, with ink on their fingers to show they had voted for him. Others had banners saying long live Egypt, Sisis slogan. He is the sixth military man to run Egypt since the army overthrew the monarch in 1952. The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies had called for a boycott. The security forces killed hundreds of Mursis supporters and arrested an estimated 20,000 activists, most of them Islamists, in a crackdown since his removal. Some secular dissidents have also been jailed, often for breaking a new protest law criticised as a threat to free assembly, alienating some liberal Egyptians who were glad that Mursi was overthrown. In Mursis home village, northeast of Cairo only a few voters had cast ballots at two polling stations visited by Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, election officials said. A poster declared Mursi still the legitimate president of Egypt, urging voters to boycott the elections of blood, while graffiti attacked Sisi as a traitor and killer. Mursis Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organisation by the state, which accuses it of a role in attacks that have killed several hundred members of the security forces. The Brotherhood denies any role in the violence. WESTERN CRITICISM It is the second time Egyptians are electing a president in two years, and it is the seventh vote or referendum since 2011. In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a Muslim Brotherhood leader in her 40s welcomed the low turnout. This boycott gives us hope that Sisi will not be a real president and be able to govern, she said, declining to give her name for fear of arrest. But Sisi, 59, enjoys the backing of many Egyptian Muslims attracted by his pious demeanour - he has presented himself as a defender of Islam - and Coptic Christians whose churches were attacked after Mursis downfall and who see him as a protector. Sisis challenger Sabahi came third in the 2012 election won by Mursi. Other candidates in that election did not run this time, saying the climate was not conducive to democracy following a crackdown on Islamist and other opposition groups. Sabahis campaign complained of many violations, including physical assaults on its representatives, and intervention by police and army, on the first day of voting. In the industrial city of Helwan, south of Cairo, many men sitting in coffee shops said they were not voting. Ive voted plenty of times, said one, a 59-year-old security guard at a factory who refused to give his name. In other words, USA Today : Egypts presidential election has been extended to a third day, the nations electoral commission announced, as authorities try to boost voter turnout in a poll that is all but certain to result in victory for ex-military chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. The decision was announced late Tuesday, which was supposed to be the final day of the vote, amid reports of weak participation. Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab had already declared Tuesday an official holiday. Trading at the Egyptian stock exchange had been suspended to allow staffers and investors to vote. Banks are closed and polls were set to remain open an hour later than usual, the state news agency MENA reported. With a third day of the election now set for Wednesday, the last-minute measures may indicate authorities concerns over turnout. Election monitoring groups said the turnout on the first day of the vote was moderate and often thin or non-existent in towns and areas where Islamists dominate. A high voter turnout would give Sisi the sense of legitimacy he needs to justify his policies, especially controversial ones related to security, which will be used to continue the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. A Brotherhood-led alliance against the power shift is boycotting this weeks vote, and a low turnout at the polls could raise questions about the validity of the outcome. It may also indicate that support for al-Sisi is not as rife as political observers believe. Al-Sisi, who has been backed by state media and institutions ahead of the vote, is widely expected to win the election against leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. He (al-Sisi) is the man for this period, said Hussein Khairallah, 74, who voted with his wife at a polling station downtown Monday. You need a man like Sisi — a strongman, a direct man, an honest man. This is what Egypt needs. The former defense minister-turned-presidential front-runner ousted Brotherhood figure Mohamed Morsi from power last year in what al-Sisis supporters claimed was a revolution and his opponents condemned as a coup. Official, final election results are expected on June 5, at which point the current Cabinet is expected to resign. On Tuesday, military choppers buzzed over central Cairo as security for the vote remained high. Police presence was heavy at polling stations, where armed soldiers stood guard behind piled sandbags. Early in the day, a homemade bomb exploded in the Cairo neighborhood Heliopolis but did not disrupt polling, the state news agency MENA reported. No one was killed in the attack.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 17:27:37 +0000
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