Voter turnout high in Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia: NEA

CAIRO – 16 March 2018: Head of the National Election Authority (NEA) counselor Lashin Ibrahim assured that the authority have not received any complaints about the voting process abroad in the presidential election that kicked off earlier Friday.

“The electoral process is going on in full swing,” Ibrahim said in a statement, adding that “the percent of the participation of Egyptians expatriates in the presidential elections is good; Egyptians lined up in front of the doors of embassies and consulates to cast their votes.”

The operations room set up by the authority to follow up the process of Egyptian expatriates voting in the presidential election indicated that voter turnout is high in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah, he noted.

He added that voters were also keen on casting ballots at the headquarters of the diplomatic missions in European countries.

The National Elections Authority spokesman Mahmoud El Sherif will hold a press conference at 3 P.M. (Cairo time) to declare how the process of voting abroad is going on.

Consulates and embassies across the world are to officially open their doors Friday at 9 a.m., according to each country’s local time.

The Egyptian embassy in New Zealand was the first to open to the electorate, given its 11-hour time difference with Cairo.

China, Japan, Russia and Indonesia followed shortly throughout the night. Due to political unrest and a worsening security situation, the elections will not take place in Libya, Syria and Yemen.

Egyptians at home are due to cast their ballots on March 26-28 in the country's 27 governorates.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister's deputy, Hamdi Loza, previously said all foreign missions have been provided with electronic scanners so voters’ ID cards and passports can be quickly scanned, noting that the whole expatriate voting process will be monitored by surveillance cameras linked with an operations room at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He added that the Foreign Ministry held training courses for committees that will supervise voting abroad under the supervision of the NEA, as well as other procedures aimed at facilitating the highest turnout from expats.

Loza called on Egyptians abroad to participate in the presidential elections, which will begin on March 16 and last for three days.

In 2017, the government estimated the number of Egyptians living abroad to be at 9.4 million.

The NEA, headed by counselor Lashen Ibrahim, announced on February 24 the final candidates for Egypt’s upcoming presidential election: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Moussa Moustafa Moussa, Head of Al-Ghad party.

Sisi showed his intention to run for president during his closing speech at the end of the three-day “Tale of a Homeland” conference, where he and the Egyptian government presented an overview of the projects and achievements made in different fields during the past four years.

On his official Twitter account, Sisi called on the Egyptian people to participate intensively in the upcoming election and give their votes to whomever they see as the most eligible.

Sixty million eligible voters will cast their ballots in the election on March 26-28 in Egypt, while expatriates will vote between Friday and March 18 at 139 polling stations located in embassies and consulates of 124 countries, said Ibrahim in a press conference.

The primary results of the first round of the election will be announced on March 29, where decisions on appeals submitted by candidates, if any, will be made.

The final results of the first round will be announced on April 2.