©(Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
Polling stations opened in Egypt on Sunday for a presidential election, which incumbent president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win, securing a third term amid the country's severe financial crisis.
Polling stations opened on Sunday for Egyptians to vote in a presidential election overshadowed by the war in neighboring Gaza, and with little doubt that the incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will secure a third term.
In a country gripped by the most severe financial crisis in its recent history, inflation has hovered near 40% after the currency lost half its value and drove up the cost of imports, the economy is the crux of Egyptians' concerns.
Even before the current crisis, about two-thirds of the country's nearly 106 million people were living on or below the poverty line
Before polls opened at 09:00 AM (0700 GMT), dozens of voters had already crowded in front of a polling station in a central Cairo school amidst heavy security.
(Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
Voting will take place from Sunday until Tuesday, between 9:00 AM and 09:00 PM (0700-1900 GMT) each day, with the official results to be announced on December 18.
Some 67 million people are eligible to vote, and all eyes will be on turnout after successive previous elections mustered low participation figures.
Despite Egypt's afflictions, a decade-long crackdown on dissent has eliminated any serious opposition to Sisi, the fifth president to emerge from within the ranks of the military since 1952.
The three other candidates are all relative unknowns among the public: Farid Zahran, leader of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party; and Hazem Omar, from the Republican People's Party.
Two more prominent opposition figures had attempted to run but were quickly sidelined by the government. Today, one is in prison and the other is awaiting trial.
Motorists drive past a campaign billboard for presidential candidate Hazem Omar of the People's Republican Party along a street in Cairo on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
The journalist and activist Khaled Dawoud criticized what he said was a "stifling atmosphere of suppressed liberties, total control of the media and security services that prevent the opposition from operating on the streets."
"We are not kidding ourselves, the vote will be... neither credible nor fair," he wrote on Facebook.
However, he added that he would vote for Zahran to "send a clear message to the regime" that "we want change" because "after 10 years, the living conditions of Egyptians have deteriorated and we risk bankruptcy because of its policies."
Sisi, a retired field marshall in the Egyptian army, came to power in 2013 after leading the overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests.
In both the 2014 and 2018 elections, he won landslide victories with over 96 percent of the vote, according to official results.
He later extended the presidential mandate from four to six years and amended the constitution to raise the limit on consecutive terms in office from two to three.
Supporters hang a campaign banner of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on a bus on a street in Cairo on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
Sisi is not without supporters, many of whom credit him with engineering a return to calm in the country after the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
From 2016 onwards, he has undertaken a host of economic reforms that saw the currency devalued and the number of civil servants slashed.
Those reforms, coupled with high-cost projects including a multibillion-dollar new capital, have led to surging prices, fuelled public discontent, and undermined Sisi's support both at home and abroad.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
Polling stations opened on Sunday for Egyptians to vote in a presidential election overshadowed by the war in neighboring Gaza, and with little doubt that the incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will secure a third term.
In a country gripped by the most severe financial crisis in its recent history, inflation has hovered near 40% after the currency lost half its value and drove up the cost of imports, the economy is the crux of Egyptians' concerns.
Even before the current crisis, about two-thirds of the country's nearly 106 million people were living on or below the poverty line
Before polls opened at 09:00 AM (0700 GMT), dozens of voters had already crowded in front of a polling station in a central Cairo school amidst heavy security.
(Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)Voting will take place from Sunday until Tuesday, between 9:00 AM and 09:00 PM (0700-1900 GMT) each day, with the official results to be announced on December 18.
Some 67 million people are eligible to vote, and all eyes will be on turnout after successive previous elections mustered low participation figures.
Despite Egypt's afflictions, a decade-long crackdown on dissent has eliminated any serious opposition to Sisi, the fifth president to emerge from within the ranks of the military since 1952.
Opponents Arrested
The three other candidates are all relative unknowns among the public: Farid Zahran, leader of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party; and Hazem Omar, from the Republican People's Party.
Two more prominent opposition figures had attempted to run but were quickly sidelined by the government. Today, one is in prison and the other is awaiting trial.
Motorists drive past a campaign billboard for presidential candidate Hazem Omar of the People's Republican Party along a street in Cairo on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)The journalist and activist Khaled Dawoud criticized what he said was a "stifling atmosphere of suppressed liberties, total control of the media and security services that prevent the opposition from operating on the streets."
"We are not kidding ourselves, the vote will be... neither credible nor fair," he wrote on Facebook.
However, he added that he would vote for Zahran to "send a clear message to the regime" that "we want change" because "after 10 years, the living conditions of Egyptians have deteriorated and we risk bankruptcy because of its policies."
Painful Reforms
Sisi, a retired field marshall in the Egyptian army, came to power in 2013 after leading the overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests.
In both the 2014 and 2018 elections, he won landslide victories with over 96 percent of the vote, according to official results.
He later extended the presidential mandate from four to six years and amended the constitution to raise the limit on consecutive terms in office from two to three.
Supporters hang a campaign banner of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on a bus on a street in Cairo on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)Sisi is not without supporters, many of whom credit him with engineering a return to calm in the country after the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
From 2016 onwards, he has undertaken a host of economic reforms that saw the currency devalued and the number of civil servants slashed.
Those reforms, coupled with high-cost projects including a multibillion-dollar new capital, have led to surging prices, fuelled public discontent, and undermined Sisi's support both at home and abroad.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
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