Sisi Gets 94.5% of Expat Vote in Egypt Presidential Race
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has picked up 94.5 percent of votes cast abroad in Egypt's presidential election, officials said Wednesday, five days before polling opens in the North African country.
The retired field marshal, riding a wave of popularity after he ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year, is widely expected to win the election that takes place in Egypt on May 26-27.
In the ballots already cast abroad, Sisi won the backing of 296,628 expats in 124 countries during voting on May 15-19, electoral committee chief Abdel Aziz Salman told a news conference.
Only 17,207 votes of the total 318,033 cast went to Sisi's sole rival, leftist leader and longtime opposition figure Hamdeen Sabbahi.
On Monday, the electoral committee said the turnout was higher than in the 2012 election won by Morsi.
Elections are open to any Egyptian citizen present abroad, on the condition they are registered and have identity cards or valid passports.
Sisi supporters see in him a tough leader capable of restoring security and reviving an economy badly hit by three years of turmoil after the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak.
But his opponents say that should he win the election, Egypt would see a return to autocratic rule.
A state crackdown targeting Morsi supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead and seen more than 15,000 jailed.
Hundreds have been sentenced to death after speedy trials.
Dozens of youth activists have also been jailed for violating a law banning all but police-sanctioned protests.
21 May 2014, 23:45
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94.5%
That is so indicative of a dictatorship in the making for sure.
22 May 2014, 02:05
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Leb can?what are you talking about?he did not need to cheat.People have voted him ,a dictator ?perhaps but the ignorant have voted him.
You should not be surprised ,look at Lebanon,some of the Lebanese are defending the Syrian regime,the regime that butchered thousands of Lebanese,noone is forcing them it is their choice *****
22 May 2014, 02:22
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The Muslim Bros. hijacked a genuine revolution. Morsi was put in a position where he could've brought the country together and kept the agendas of the Muslim Bros. at the fringes of the State's governmental and security functions for the economical health, security and dignity of this ancient culture. Instead Morsi became one of the most egregious and ideological polarizing short lived marginal leader, if you call it that. May be Egypt should study, follow and adopt the Chine top-down autocracy instead.
