An Egyptian man casts his ballot at a polling station in Imbaba district during the presidential election in Cairo on December 11, 2023.(Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Cairo: Egyptians returned to polling stations Monday, the second day of a presidential election in which the incumbent is expected to secure a landslide victory despite it being overshadowed by various crises.
Local media showed Egyptians celebrating in droves, waving flags and blasting patriotic songs from speakers around polling stations across the country.
"Today is like a holiday, a very beautiful carnival," voter Hamud Abu El-Maaty said outside a polling station in the upscale Cairo district of Zamalek.
But in much of the sprawling capital, the only sign that the country of nearly 106 million people was holding an election were the ubiquitous campaign posters for sitting president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The former army chief is running against three relative unknowns: Farid Zahran, leader of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party; and Hazem Omar, from the Republican People's Party.
The vote, set to conclude Tuesday before results are announced on December 18, has been overshadowed by the war in neighbouring Gaza and Egypt's worst-ever economic crisis.
But a decade-long crackdown on dissent has eliminated any serious contenders for the top executive post.
"I have come today to vote for the president because of the incredibly difficult situation our country is going through," 67-year old Nadia Shahin told AFP after voting.
"We need a strong president," she continued, echoing other supporters of the former army chief who insist only he can protect Egypt's interests from the fallout of the war in Gaza, just across the northeastern border.
For most Egyptians, who have had their savings slashed in an unrelenting economic crisis that started early last year, the cost of living is their top priority.
Even those still ardently supporting Sisi -- under whose administration Egypt's debt has more than tripled -- have urged the president to ease the burden on everyday Egyptians.
Abu El-Maaty said he "wants the new president, whoever he is, to enact control over the market" and "punish merchants" engaged in price gouging.
Annual inflation currently stands at 38.5 percent, with the import-dependent economy suffering severe foreign currency shortages after the Egyptian pound lost half its value in a year.
This election would secure Sisi's third -- and, according to the constitution, final -- term in office.
Some 67 million people are eligible to vote in the Arab world's most populous country.
With no competitive challenger, turnout is expected to be a key indicator of public sentiment. In 2018, it fell six points from Sisi's first election in 2014, to 41.5 percent.
