Voting concluded on Monday in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, amid government concerns over low turnout in a vote that is expected to strengthen the political clout of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said turnout on the first day of voting on Sunday was just 15-16 % but should rise after public sector workers were given a half-day off to vote. Estimates by judges overseeing the ballot suggested turnout had risen to 20 percent or more by Monday afternoon.
The lack of interest, particularly from young people who comprise the majority of Egypt’s population, stands in contrast to the long queues and youthful enthusiasm of the 2011-12 polls.
“I’m not going to give my vote to someone who doesn’t deserve it,” Michael Bassili, 19, from Alexandria. “As youth we’re trying to fix the country and we’ll work to do this…but these guys are just interested in money and themselves.”
Coming days after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Egyptians to cast their ballots, the low turnout suggested the former general, who once enjoyed cult-like adulation, was losing some of his appeal.
Sisi has desbribed the election as a milestone on the road to democracy in Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
But with most of his opponents in jail, Sisi is not expected to face any serious challenges from parliament, and the low turnout will reinforce the view that it will lack credibility.
In 2013, then-army chief Sisi overthrew Egypt’s first freely-elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, and promised a “roadmap to democracy”.
He then launched the fiercest crackdown on dissent in Egypt’s modern history, jailing thousands of Mursi’s supporters as well as activists at the forefront of the 2011 revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and ignited hopes of change.
