Cairo: As some voters in mainland Egypt chanted praise for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi outside polling stations on their way to re-elect him, residents of the restive northern Sinai Peninsula lined up for a different reason – bread handouts.
A military campaign in North Sinai that aims to crush Islamic State militants has blocked most access to the peninsula as forces carry out air raids, deploy patrols and impose curfews, creating a stranglehold that has led to a shortage of food and supplies, locals say.
With many people afraid to leave their homes amid the fighting against militants, barely any voters cast their ballots in parts of North Sinai on the first day of the three-day election, local officials and residents said.”I went to vote because I was waiting in line to pick up bread” being handed out by the army, school teacher Selim Ahmed told Reuters by phone from his town of Sheikh Zuweid.
“The polling station happened to be nearby so I voted. People here are waiting for food baskets, of which there are few. They’re not queueing up to vote,” he said.
Ahmed Raouf, an official overseeing voting in another area in Sheikh Zuweid, near the border with the Gaza Strip, said only one person had been into the polling station he was supervising.
“That’s out of an electorate of 6,000 people in this area. People are scared to come out because of the ongoing military operations and threats of targeting polling stations,” Raouf said.
Islamic State in the weeks before the election warned Egyptians not to vote in an apparent threat.
Egypt’s election commission said late on Monday that turnout in parts of North Sinai had been “very good”.
Read the full article written by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan at the Sydney Morning Herald.