Of the four candidates who ran yesterday in Egypt’s presidential elections, voters in Cairo only recognize the current head of state, Abdul Fattah al-Sissi, the undisputed favorite to win these elections against completely unknown rivals for large part of the population.
“I voted for Al-Sissi, because yes, I don’t know the others. We don’t know them and we have to vote for someone we know,” says Roya Ahmed, a 55-year-old Cairota who has cast her vote in a polling station in the humble neighborhood of Imbaba, on the banks of the Nile. He is one of the hundred people who have waited for the Ahmed Orabi polling station to open at nine o’clock on the first day of Egypt’s presidential elections, which will be extended for two more days so that 67 million Egyptians can vote .
And in fact, for the first time in a decade, these presidential elections have four candidates from different backgrounds, a sign of the “serious path of the State towards democratic transformation, party pluralism and political competitiveness”, according to the authorities.
Zarid Zahran, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (PSE); Abdel Sanad Iamama, leader of the Wafd party, and Hazem Omar, of the Republican People’s Party (RPP), are just strangers who appear on the ballot alongside Al-Sissi. “Yes, of course, we already knew before going out to vote Quiguanyarà,” says Ibrahim between laughs.
Although the electoral campaign featured rallies, special media programs and posters of all four candidates, the vast majority of voters consulted by Efe claim that they do not know Al-Sissi’s rivals.
Intissar, a 50-year-old woman who voted for the current head of state, says that the only other candidate she knows is Gamal Mubarak, the son of former president Hosni Mubarak, who is not participating in the elections .
For his part, Ikrami Ahmed, 49 years old, is one of the few who does know the other candidates, but he assures that he only went to the electoral college in the popular neighborhood of Shubra because the president and ex-marshal “will protect Egypt” . “I support the army and the police. The international community thinks they forced me to vote, but I came with all my will”, exclaims Ahmed, who affirms that “Al-Sissi has done good things, but people deny it”. And Omar, 22 years old, says he will vote for Al-Sissi because he is “the only candidate with the necessary experience”.
The first of three voting days passed with a moderate turnout and without incident, according to some of the 22,000 local election observers.
Egyptians face these elections in the midst of one of the worst economic crises, marked by official inflation of around 40% and the loss of more than half the value of the currency in just over a year.
However, voters have no hope that the situation will improve after the elections. “I don’t think there will be any change. We now do not understand anything, prices are rising, and the salary, not. We understand absolutely nothing”, says Hemat, 45 years old.
