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CAIRO. — Egyptians voted for a new president yesterday in an election expected to sweep to power the ex-army chief who overthrew the country’s first democratically-elected leader and crushed his Islamist movement.The two-day election is the first since the frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, a move that unleashed the bloodiest violence in Egypt’s recent history.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the vote, as are revolutionary youths who fear Sisi is an autocrat in the making.
But the 59-year-old retired field marshal is expected to trounce his sole rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid widespread calls for stability. Polling stations opened at 0600 GMT for 53 million registered voters, with Sisi arriving early at one in Cairo to cast his ballot amid a throng of jostling reporters and supporters.
“The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow,” Sisi said.
“Egyptians must be reassured that tomorrow will be very beautiful and great,” he said, as supporters shook his hand and kissed his cheeks.
Many view the vote as a referendum on stability versus the freedoms promised by the Arab Spring-inspired popular uprising that ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Since the revolution, the country of 86 million people has been rocked by sporadic unrest and a tanking economy. — AFP.
Online Reporter