Sisi loses turnout battle in Egypt's election
While Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win in a landslide, the low voter turnout reflects the failure of his campaign to manage expectations and build a mandate for governance.
The first day of Egypt’s presidential elections saw turnout lower than expected. The authorities quickly initiated several measures to try to boost participation on the second day to bolster the election's legitimacy — and then extended the balloting to a third day while both candidates protested the extension.
Hamdeen Sabahi’s campaign was trying to capitalize on this situation with a “Tuesday is for Hamdeen” motto and hashtag on social media. After the extension was announced, a hashtag by some of his supporters started trending on Twitter, urging their candidate to withdraw from the race (although the legal deadline for withdrawals was long past).
