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Egyptians are voting in the country's presidential polls amid a severe financial crisis while Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is seeking a third term, reported Al Jazeera.
Polls started at 9 a.m. (07:00 GMT) on Sunday, with dozens of voters queuing in front of polling locations in central Cairo amid tight security. The voting will be open until Tuesday, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. (07:00-19:00 GMT), with the official results to be revealed on December 18, according to Al Jazeera. El-Sisi, a retired field marshal in the Egyptian army, came to power in 2013 after leading the overthrow of the country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, to which Morsi belonged, was outlawed in the wake of the 2013 coup. Approximately 67 million people are eligible to vote, and all eyes will be on turnout given poor participation rates in previous elections in the Arab nation. According to analysts, the economy is at the top of voters' minds in Sunday's election since the country is in the grip of the most severe financial crisis in its recent history - inflation has hovered near 40 per cent after the Egyptian pound lost half its value since March, reported Al Jazeera. Even before the present crisis, over two-thirds of the country's nearly 106 million inhabitants lived on or around the poverty line. Despite Egypt's problems, a decade-long crackdown on dissent has effectively destroyed any genuine opposition to el-Sisi, the military's fifth ruler since 1952, reported Al Jazeera. Farid Zahran, leader of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, of the Wafd, a century-old but insignificant party; and Hazem Omar, of the Republican People's Party, are the three other contenders, Al Jazeera reported. El-Sisi, a retired Egyptian army field marshal, seized power in 2013 after supporting the removal of the country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. Following the 2013 coup, the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Morsi belonged, was outlawed. According to official data, Sisi won landslide victories with more than 96 per cent of the vote in 2014 and 2018, reported Al Jazeera. El-Sisi later increased the presidential term limit from four to six years and modified the constitution to do so. (ANI)
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