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Ex-army chief and election front runner in the Presidential election in Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is set for a landslide victory on Tuesday, the last day of voting. Sisi last July ousted the first democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the vote. The move has unleashed the most lethal wave of violence in recent Egyptian history.
The April 6 youth movement, the group which led the anti-Mubarak revolt, is boycotting the poll; on Sunday, it announced that it will reject any outcome of the poll. The Islamist movement is also boycotting the election. Around 53 million people are eligible to vote in the election. Parliamentary elections will be held later this year. Sisi is widely expected to dominate his sole rival Hamdeen Sabbahi in the vote. Sisi himself cast his vote among a mass of jostling supporters and reporters mere minutes after polling opened on Monday.
“The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow. Egyptians must be reassured that tomorrow will be very beautiful and great”, Sisi said, as supporters kissed his cheeks and shook his hands after he cast the vote. Many consider the election as a referendum on stability versus freedom promised by the uprising in 2011 which ousted Hosni Mubarak. Since the uprising, Egypt has been rocked by intermittent unrest and a failing economy. Mohammed Morsi succeeded Mubarak after winning the country’s first democratic election, but only lasted a year in office after alienating several allies.
Hamdeen Sabbahi has promised to protect the democratic dream of the 2011 revolt. “We swear to God that symbols of corruption and despotism (from the Mubarak era) will not return”, he said.
Sisi has said “true democracy” will take a few decades to establish, and has suggested that he will not tolerate any protests which might disrupt the economy. He has also pledged to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood, which has won every election after Mubarak’s overthrow. Prior to the uprising in 2011, the Brotherhood was banned in Egypt for decades.