Sissi Expected to Win as Egyptians Cast Final Presidential Votes
Egyptians are voting for a second and final day in a presidential election that is expected to bring former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to power.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab declared Tuesday a public holiday in a push for more people to go to the polls.
Official results are not due to come out until next week, but Sissi has long been considered the likely winner in the race. Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi is the only other candidate.
Sissi led the army’s ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi last July, setting off protests from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and a violent military crackdown that left more than 1,000 people dead. Many of the Brotherhood’s leaders have also been arrested, and Sissi has said the Islamist group has no future in Egypt.
The Brotherhood has urged Egyptians to boycott what the group says is an illegitimate election.
Egypt has seen three years of political turmoil since the popular uprising that pushed former leader Hosni Mubarak from power in early 2011. Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2012, but lasted only a year in office before protesters held mass rallies accusing him of trying to monopolize power and failing to fix Egypt’s economy.
His ouster brought an interim government that set out a roadmap with plans for a new constitution and elections for president and parliament. Voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum on the constitution in January, and the vote for parliament is expected later this year.
Before Morsi, all of Egypt’s presidents had come from the military ranks. Sissi has said that although he has a military background, the army will “not have a role in ruling Egypt.”
