FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

No Surprises Expected in Egypt's Election as El-Sisi Heads for a Landslide

It is the first day of Egypt's presidential elections and a big victory is expected for former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,
Photo via AP/Ahmed Gamil

Egyptians headed to the polls today in the country's second presidential elections in two years. Voting will continue tomorrow and results will not be announced until June 5. But the day was about one man, former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is expected to win by a landslide against his only opponent, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

In Photos: Election Day Highlights Egypt's Obsession With El-Sisi

Advertisement

At polling stations, voters waved Egyptian flags while brandishing posters and photographs of Sisi. Makeshift sound systems mounted on the back of trucks blasted patriotic and pro-military songs like Teslam El-Ayadi (Bless Your Hands) as men and women clapped and danced. Sabahi voters were either a tiny minority or much, much shyer about announcing their candidate of choice.

A vote for Sisi is seen by many of his backers as a vote for stability and a return to growth after a tumultuous three years of deteriorating economic and security conditions. Ahmed Naggi, a voter at a central Cairo polling station, told VICE News that he saw Sisi as the only person capable of leading Egypt out of its current situation. “Sisi is number one, he is a great man, a very great man. No organization, military or government will help us, but he will.”

Naggi added that Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, which Sisi removed from power last year, betrayed Islamic values. “Morsi chose lots of fighting. His idea of Islam is that force is everything. It isn't, Islam is a religion of peace.”

Even weirder evidence surfaces as Egypt Al Jazeera trial edges towards verdict. Read more here.

Security is tight, courtesy of the 500,000 members of the security forces deployed to protect voters. Armed police and troops wearing body armor, and the occasional facemask, manned sand-bagged positions at polling stations. Ministry of Interior Posters, reading "Participate and we will protect you," were pasted on walls. Helicopters circled low over central Cairo throughout the day.

Advertisement

By early evening, there were no reports of major violence, unlike the referendum on a new constitution earlier this year, which saw several dead across the country and a bomb blast at a Cairo courthouse.

Egyptian presidential candidate and former military leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi cast his ballot in the country’s elections on May 26.

Sisi took 95 percent of expatriate Egyptians' votes, which were cast in advance and local opinion polls have shown him winning with an overwhelming majority. However, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 54 percent of Egyptians have a positive opinion of him.

Nevertheless, most see a decisive Sisi win as certainty. The key question is how many people will actually vote.

The former armed forces chief has split the country. His decision to oust Morsi was seen by some Egyptians as a coup and others as a response to public demand. Meanwhile, the military-backed government he installed afterwards launched a brutal, and highly controversial, crackdown on the former president's supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands more imprisoned.

If a large proportion of Egypt’s 53 million registered voters cast their ballots and Sisi is still the clear winner, then the results will appear to show public backing for his actions. If too few Egyptians vote, however, then his nationwide support will be in doubt.

Egypt's president-in-waiting kicks off campaign with hardline vows. Read more here.

Advertisement

Sherif Ibrahim, a retired IT specialist waiting for his wife outside a women’s polling station in Cairo’s Garden City neighborhood, told VICE News that was why he had come out to vote. “Ninety percent of the vote will go to Sisi, the important thing is turnout. The idea is to top 30 million [votes for Sisi],” Ibrahim added. "We want to get double what Morsi got [52 percent of the vote and 52 percent turnout] and show people that it is not a coup and it’s legitimate.”

With another day of voting to go, it is too early to gauge turnout, but troops at Cairo polling stations told VICE News that there had been large crowds there in the mornings and that they expected more people later. Mario David, head of the chief of a European Union Election Observation Mission monitoring the polls, said a good turnout looked likely, according to the Associated Press. However, a spokesperson for the mission told VICE News that it would not be making any official announcements until two days after voting was concluded.

This video shows Hamdeen Sabahi, el-Sisi’s only challenger and head of the Egyptian Popular Current, casting his vote.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders urged their followers to boycott the vote. Many secular liberals who were involved in the popular uprising that overthrew long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011 have made the same decision. Some told VICE News that even though they might once have supported Sabahi from a policy perspective, they now feel that him taking part in the elections legitimizes Sisi’s inevitable victory by lending an air of democracy to the process.

The elections are very different to those held in 2012 after Mubarak was toppled. Then, 13 candidates fought it out. In the end, Morsi bested Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s former prime minister. Sabahi also ran and finished third.

Follow John Beck on Twitter: @JM_Beck