High abstention in Polls questions Al Sisi government in Egypt

Buffeted by the tourist camel that led from the outskirts of the Giza pyramids with transistor blaring, two young Egyptian clapped Wednesday to songs that call vote for president. Standing on the ground, the student Ahmed Nassar admitted that he would not vote in the third election day. Neither quarterback retired Abdelfatá AL Sisi, strong man of the regime that overthrew the Islamist Mohamed Morsi 10 months ago, and his only opponent, leftist Hamdin Sabbahi.

After the first pulse Monday, voter turnout fell to force the government to add a third day to, the longest election in Egyptian history. While no one doubts that Al Sisi will win, the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups hold strong abstention as its own success. According to judicial sources quoted by Reuters after counting 3,000 polling stations, Al Sisi won 89 % of the vote, while Sabbahi took 5%. These same sources reported Wednesday that participation was 44.4 %.

The campaign team of the government candidate, with data from 2,000 schools, maintains that 93.4 % of voters chose their candidate, and a meager 2.9 % opted for his rival.

Economic analyst Angus Blair, who heads the regional think-tank Signet, attributed part of the abstention to “voter fatigue” of the Egyptians, who “have time and again voted in elections and referendums” since the revolution against Mubarak. Blair believes that the key to this boredom is “the estrangement of the young” of a political system that makes Egypt a gerontocracy. This generation gap is, he believes, one of the biggest social problems. Providing opportunities for young people is an obligatory pillar for any stability, with or without military.

The electoral tune applauding young Giza wants to encourage the youth vote asking why silent about the polls. Have no shortage of reasons to the millions of miserable, or tens of thousands of imprisoned or killed more than a thousand since the coup.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=44650

Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on May 30 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.