Egypt: Ex-army Chief Favorite to Win the Election
By Staff Writer
Egyptian’s election held on Monday May 26 is expected to propel the ex-army chief who overthrew the country’s first democratically elected leader and crushed his Islamist movement to presidency.
The two-day election is the first since Genera Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, deposed the government of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, a move that led to the most bloodiest violence in Egypt’s recent history.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the vote, as are revolutionary youths who fear Gen. Field Marshall Sisi is an autocrat in the making.
These comes few days after an Egyptian courts sentenced ousted dictator Mubarak to 3 years in prison and 155 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to serve jail terms on Wednesday May 21, giving 54 of them life sentences, judicial sources said, in a case related to violence in the Nile Delta province of Mansour last August after the ouster of Morsi.
But the 59-year-old retired general is expected to trounce his sole rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid widespread calls for stability.
Polling centers opened at 0600hrs for 53 million registered voters, with Sisi arriving early in Cairo to cast his ballot amid a throng of jostling reporters and supporters.
“The world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow. The people must be reassured that tomorrow will be very beautiful and great,” he said, as supporters shook his hand and kissed his cheeks.
Many view the vote as a referendum on stability versus the freedoms promised by the Arab Spring-inspired popular uprising that ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Mubarak’s successor, the Islamist Morsi, lasted one year in office, winning Egypt’s first democratic presidential election only to quickly alienate many who held mass rallies demanding his resignation.
“We need someone who speaks in a determined and strong way. The Egyptian people are frightened by this and respect those who are like this,” said Milad Yusef, a 29-year-old lawyer waiting to vote in Cairo.
Yusef said he had voted for Mr Sabbahi in the 2012 election that Morsi won, but that he would now back Sisi. “We need someone strong, a military man.”
There was a low turnout in pro-Morsi town of Kerdasa, 35 kilometres southwest of Cairo, as loyalists of the ousted president stayed indoors.
“Forgery will never grant legitimacy to a butcher nor will it lessen the determination of revolutionaries,” said the Brotherhood.
“Sisi killed youths and now he is grabbing power. This is the biggest evidence that (Morsi’s ouster) was a coup,” Mohamed Gamal, a law graduate who boycotted the vote, told AFP.
Sisi has said “true democracy” would take a couple of decades, and suggested he would not tolerate protests disrupting the economy. He has also pledged to eliminate the Brotherhood, which had won every election following Mubarak’s overthrow after being banned for decades.
The military and police were deployed heavily to secure polling stations and ensure the safety of the voters.
The poll will be followed by parliamentary elections this year.
Sisi’s sole rival Sabbahi, a veteran dissident, has vowed to defend the democratic aspirations of the 2011 revolt.
Mean while Egyptians leaving in Uganda on Wednesday May 21, turned out to cast their votes in the general elections at their embassy in Kololo.
According to the resulst in Kampala Gen El-Sisi swept the polls, by 75 votes against his rivals Hamdeen Sabahi got 11 votes.
According to a press statement from the press secretary Ms. Nashwa Abdelhamid,the election at the embassy were peaceful without any irregularities.
Amassador of Egypt to Uganda Ahmed Abdel Aziz in an interview earlier said, “This is the first time Egyptian in the diaspora cast their votes in the diaspora. Our voters register was recently computerized and that has enabled Egyptians to carry out their constitutional right to vote.”