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At the last minute

Media and governmental attempts to exhort voters to take to the polls may have an adverse result, reports Ahmed Morsy

While voting was still ongoing on the first day of the scheduled two-day presidential elections, television pundits were already in a frenzied state panicking over what they perceived as a low turnout. Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, no official figures of the turnout had been announced.

“The people have to participate in the elections to prove to the world that Egyptians agree on the roadmap. It is not important who wins whether [Abdel-Fattah] Al-Sisi or [Hamdeen] Sabahi,” said presenter Amr Adib Monday evening during Al-Qahira Al-Youm talkshow. Imagine if only eight or 10 million participated in the elections, Adib said, what are we going to say to the world? “A low turnout is tantamount to releasing Morsi from prison and bringing him back to power, because the people did not agree on the roadmap,” Adib warned.

Voter turnout in the 2012 presidential elections runoff — between Morsi and Ahmed Shafik — was 26,420,763 (nearly 52 per cent) out of 50,958,794 eligible registered voters at that time. Morsi won 13,280,131 votes.

In the 2014 constitutional referendum, 20,613,677 voters (38.6 per cent) out of more than 53,423,485 registered voters cast ballots. The number of ‘yes’ voters was 19,985,389 (98.1 per cent).

In light of the media mania, controversial media personnel Tawfik Okasha, owner of Al-Faraeen satellite channel, attacked people who did not vote Monday, saying the turnout was weak, as only seven million cast their vote on the first day of the elections. “Egyptians are happy that they are being smacked on the back of their heads,” Okasha claimed. Moreover, journalist and former MP Mostafa Bakri went even further by hysterically advising: “Go out, even if you [invalidate] your vote, just go out. Otherwise, you are a traitor.” “Whoever does not vote is giving the kiss of life to the terrorists, and giving the Americans and the West the justification to comment on 30 June,” Bakri avowed.

On the same day, Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb announced in interview on state television that the second day of the elections would be a national holiday because of “popular demand”, while the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) announced that voting hours would be extended until 10pm instead of 9pm.

Despite being a holiday, the scene on Tuesday was not different, whether in terms of television presenters’ attitudes or late official decisions. A number of television hosts expressed anger at what they called an unexpectedly small turnout. Others painted the turnout as not small, but that it should have been higher, especially after Tuesday was declared a holiday.

Al-Sisi called for voters to turnout in “unprecedented numbers” at the start of his campaign, estimating his desired turnout at 40 million. Al-Sisi not only asked his supporters to participate but all voters, even if choosing his rival candidate.

Trying to facilitate voter participation, Minister of Transportation Ibrahim Al-Demeiri issued an amnesty on fines for railway users who hopped on trains without tickets on voting days, to “ease the conditions for those who wish to vote.” The same decision was taken by Ali Fadali, head of Cairo’s underground metro.

PEC’s operations room said that some polling stations saw more voters than others on the first day, pointing to higher turnout among female voters. The younger generations, according to media coverage and surveys, had the lowest turnout figures.

The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) released a statement Tuesday morning reporting low voter turnout on the second day of the presidential elections, despite what it described as “facilitation offered” for citizens to cast their ballots. Mehleb, however, announced on Tuesday that the second day’s turnout was better than Monday.

A day earlier, the Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections (ECME) said that indicators for the first day of the presidential elections showed low turnout generally amounting to 15 per cent, according to random samples.

By Tuesday evening, the second day of the electoral process, PEC announced that “voting will be extended to Wednesday”. The same decision was taken a fortnight ago when the PEC announced that Egyptians abroad would be allowed to vote until 19 May, granting them one extra day to cast their votes in the presidential elections.

The Tuesday decision was explained by some observers as coming from a “heat wave” hitting the country, with high temperatures hindering voters from participating in the elections. Others believed that declaring Tuesday a holiday made citizens lazy to take to the polling stations instead of encouraging them. Both presidential candidates filed complaints against the extension: PEC refused the objections of both candidates.

“I don’t find a justification for the government nor PEC to flounder by taking such late decisions,” Ahmed Ezzat, a sales executive in a private telecom company who voted for Al-Sisi in the second day of the electoral process, told the Weekly. “Whoever has the intention to vote for a specific candidate will not wait for another third day to vote,” Ezzat said. “Extending the voting only reflects fishy purposes and will not increase the turnout.”

Ahmed Bakr, 30, has not cast his vote up to Wednesday morning. “I was still thinking of whether I should participate or not during the scheduled two days and it was only after watching the TV hosts frenzy to exhort voters to take to polling stations for face-saving purposes that I decided to go and elect Sabahi on Wednesday,” Bakr said. He added that almost all the television pundits panicking over the noticeably low turnout “are themselves openly or secretly supporters of Al-Sisi”.

Bakr used to work in the tourism sector for 10 years till he was urged to change his career last year for a temporarily job because of the deteriorated conditions of the domestic tourism sector. “I was provoked by the media mania,” he added.    
                                                                                                    Al-Ahram weekly