Egypt poll lackluster

Mass support for Sisi failed to materialize again on Wednesday. Polling stations in Cairo and Alexandria were again quiet. Electoral officials had put Monday and Tuesday's combined turnout at just 37 percent.

The participation appeared far lower than the nearly 52 percent who voted in Egypt's 2012 election that brought to power Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president overthrown last July by the military and put on trial.

Sisi, himself, had called for an 80 percent turnout, equating to 40 million voters, to endorse his promise to rescue the country after three years of turmoil.

Final results are not expected until June 5. State media reported Tuesday that the intended two-day vote would be extended a day to allow the "greatest number possible to vote."

Late on Tuesday, Sisi's sole rival, leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi criticized the decision, saying it raised questions "about the integrity of the process."

Sisi's campaign teams said after the extension that he too had objected to the extra day's voing.

'Slap in the face'

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which had called for an election boycott, described the low turnout as a "new slap in the face to the military coup's roadmap."

Since last December, the Brotherhood has faced a military-led crackdown. All of its main leaders are either in jail or in exile.

An observer mission of Democracy International visiting Egypt said the "last-minute decision" to extend voting should only have been made in "extraordinary circumstances."

ipj/msh (Reuters, AFP)