CAIRO: Egyptians went to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election with little doubt the incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would secure a third term.

In a country gripped by the most severe financial crisis in its recent history — inflation has hovered near 40 per cent after the currency lost half its value and drove up the cost of imports — the economy is at the centre of Egyptians’ concerns.

Even before the current crisis, about two-thirds of the country’s nearly 106 million people were living on or below the poverty line.

Polling to continue until Tuesday, results will be out on Dec 18

Voting will take place until Tuesday, between 9:00am and 09:00pm (local time) each day, with the official results announced on December 18.

In front of one Cairo polling station, posters bore messages to “get out and participate” while a DJ played nationalist songs.

Some 67 million people are eligible to vote, five million of whom had cast their ballots by 4:30pm (local time) on Sunday, according to a statement from the National Election Authority.

Turnout is expected to be a key indicator of public sentiment in an otherwise uncompetitive election. Last time, it fell six points to 41.5pc. Casting her ballot in the western Cairo district of Dokki, Asmaa Refaat, a voter in her forties, said she “doesn’t know the other candidates”.

“I only know President Sisi,” she said, calling on the winner “to change our lives for the better and ease inflation”.

Annual inflation is at 38.5pc, with food price rises alone hitting 45.2pc, official figures showed on Sunday.

Voter Fathi Ali, 79, said he “only asks that the next president ensures full health insurance”.

Despite Egypt’s afflictions, a decade-long crackdown on dissent has eliminated any serious opposition to Sisi.

Under his rule, Egypt has jailed thousands of political prisoners.

Opponents arrested

Egyptians, meanwhile, have paid little attention to election campaigning that has taken place in the shadow of the unrest in Gaza.

That crisis has monopolised media and public attention across the Arab world. Talk shows in Egypt — closely tied to the intelligence services and fervent supporters of Sisi — have sought to link the two issues in the incumbent’s favour.

“We cannot sit idly by and watch, we will go out and say ‘no to the transfer’” of Gazans into Egypt, said one TV presenter, Ahmed Moussa, echoing a speech by Sisi at the start of the unrest in Oct.

For some voters, Gaza takes precedence over other concerns.

“Yes, there’s inflation and things are hard, but we need someone capable of handling what’s happening at the border,” a voter in her fifties said, referring to Egypt’s frontier with Gaza.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023