Egypt’s Presidential elections 2018 in graph : Let the numbers speak facts

On Monday, Egypt’s National Elections Authority announced the final and official results of the March Presidential elections 2018.
Incumbent President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was elected unsurprisingly in a landslide victory with 97% of the valid votes in a-41.5%-turnout.

His rival, the leader of Ghad Party Moussa Moussa got 2.92%  of the total votes.
For the second presidential elections in a row, the spoilt votes come in the second place right after Sisi with 1,762,231 votes or 7.27% of the total votes.
It is worth to mention that the number of eligible voters increased from 53,909,306 in Presidential elections 2014 to become 59,078,138 normally.

Now the NEA, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Pro-regime media are claiming that there was a huge turnout thanking Egyptians inside and outside for once again proving to the world that they supported the current president.

Inside an Egyptian presidential elections polling station in Giza 

Well numbers, the official numbers released by the NEA says a different story; especially when compared with presidential elections 2014 and presidential elections 2012 which were released by NEA’s predecessor the High Elections committee
Let’s see my dear readers what the official numbers say.

First of all
Here is El-Sisi Vs. Moussa’s graph

Al Masry Al Youm and Masr Al Arabia's fines : Again Journalism is not crime in Egypt "Updated"

In a new escalation for the dramatic events that have been taken place in Egypt’s most famous independent and privately Newspaper since the third day of the presidential election , the editor in chief of Al Masry Al Youm Mohamed El-Siyad Saleh was dismissed from his position by the chairman of the daily paper’s board and its managing director on Thursday.

Saleh was dismissed over a headline published in the front page of the newspaper by none other than Abdel Moneim Saeed and Abdel Latif Al-Manawy ,the two famous Pro-Mubarak/Pro-Sisi’s media figures.

Abdel Moneim Saeed has also ordered the newspaper not to publish anymore any op-eds for writer Abdel Nasser Salama.

The famous Pro-Mubarak writer has been very critical to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in the past couple of years.

Those orders by Saeed were issued following a sudden slowness in the official website of the newspaper on Wednesday.

People who understand in Networks say that someone lowered its bandwidth. Other are saying that Egypt's biggest independent and privately owned newspaper is on the verge of being blocked in Egypt !!

All of that happened because of a headline some did not like.

Sunday afternoon, Egypt’s High Media Council fined Daily Al Masry Al Youm “AMAY” LE 100,000 for allegedly publishing misleading news as referring its editor in chief and one of the reporters to an investigation at the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo.

The High Media Council which is led by veteran pro-regime journalist Makram Mohamed Ahmed also ordered the newspaper to apologize to the National Elections Authority in the daily newspaper itself.

All that happened because AMAY published on its first page in the edition of Wednesday’s issue a news with the headline saying the following in Arabic ( الدولة تحشد الناخبين اخر ايام الانتخابات) or “The state mobilizes the voters in the last day of the elections”.

The issue with the headline that caused trouble

It seems the headline and the news itself did not like some VIPs did not like the title or the news because the AMAY editorial team decided to change to remove from the first page as well the AMAY’s website and its cache !!

Voting girl 2018 : Notes about Egypt's Presidential Elections 2018

Another dispatch from Cairo, the land of pharaohs and elections.
Earlier Friday, Egypt’s National Elections Authority “NEA” announced that no one has presented any appeal or objection against the elections.
Thus on 2 April, the NEA will announce Current president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the winner of the 2018 presidential race in the non-surprising news.
According to the unofficial preliminary results leaked from the NEA and Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s official campaign, the current president comes in the first place by 92% of the votes, the spoilt votes in the second place by 5% and Moussa Moussa in the third place by 3%.
Estimations of the turn out speak about over 40% of eligible votes “59 million votes”
This is the second consecutive presidential elections in a row to have the spoilt vote in the second place.
In the 2014 Presidential elections between Sisi and Hamdeen Sabhi, also the spoiled votes came in the second place by 4.07%
Needless to say, the fact that we have spoiled votes more than El-Sisi’s opponent in the Presidential elections say a lot especially  with all the attempt to mobilize people to head to the polling stations
At 9 PM Wednesday, Egyptian Presidential elections 2018 concluded in a dramatic way as the NEA extended it for another hour whereas a huge sandstorm was hitting the country.

A lady snapping a photo of her old mother casting her vote in the presidential elections 2018

This post includes my testimony on the second day and third day as well a more detailed day one of the Egyptian presidential elections 2018.
The first post about the Egyptian presidential elections is brief as I was tired and God knows that I am still tired thanks to our dusty Egyptian spring and sinusitis.
You can see a very short summary of that election in the video here. It is too short and I mock how the mainstream media covered the elections. It is different as you can than previous reports about elections since 2011.

First of all, I did not vote in the Egyptian presidential elections 2018 because it is actually a referendum.
It is a setback to the old days and continuing old tradition of the 99.999% yes to the leader referendums that started in the days of Nasser.

Egypt's Presidential elections 2018 : Day 1 "Senior Citizens Day"

Elections ink at a polling station n Dokki , Egypt 

The first day of presidential elections 2018 in Egypt is over as 13,706 polling stations in 26 governorates close their doors after 12 hours of voting.
Since 9 AM, the polling stations secured by Egyptian armed forces units opened the doors for nearly 56 million eligible voters hoping for a high turnout that would send a direct message to the world as well to inside that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has still got popularity.
Scoring victory in elections with a high percentage is not enough proof especially that old Mubarak used to do that and no one bought it.

After the January revolution, Egyptians surprised the world somehow of standing long queues in different weather conditions in 2011 in a referendum followed by parliamentary elections then followed by the first multi-candidate democratic presidential elections with its two stages in 2012.
The true change was in the turnout. The turnout proves that the people trust you and trust your process.
Long queues give a good image in the foreign media. It is good for the foreign partners who will use it to prove that you are popular.

I have not seen those long queues the Pro-regime media whether mainstream or social are urging the people to show the world 

All that I saw in Cairo and Giza till 2.30 PM was a moderate turnout for senior citizens and some people in their late 40s.

I couple of young men under 30 in a Cairo polling station from the working class who were clueless on how to vote properly and three women in their early 30s from Middle Class in a Giza polling station.
One of those ladies, a housewife who voted for that “other guy” aka Moussa Mostafa Mossua because “she wanted the elections to appear nice in front of the world” !!!!!!

The main thing when I spoke with those people I found; they all complain about economy and prices. Sisi has to fix the economy in those four years, that what I was told.

This is for now. I saw and noticed other things but I am tired to write anything. 

Egypt’s Presidential elections 2018 : The Quest of high turnout

After 12 hours from now Cairo local time, the polling stations will open its doors for more than 50 million eligible voters kicking off the 2018 Presidential elections inside Egypt which all the world knows its result in advance: an overwhelming victory for President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The Egyptian armed forces units have been deployed the polling stations, mostly at schools around the country. The Egyptian army has been securing the Election process in Egypt since 2011.

Anyhow now the Egyptian Pro-regime mainstream media and social media have been doing something hysterically in the past few days especially in the past 24 days: Encouraging people to vote at the polling station in order to have a high turnout.

Egyptians know very well that Sisi is going to win these elections so there is fear that they may not stand in queues like in past presidential elections.

TV hosts are calling people to go and to vote in order to prove to the world that they are behind Abdel Fattah El-Sisi despite logically and theoretically speaking a high turnout does not mean those people will choose Sisi because they can choose that other guy whom most of the public ignore and foreign media ridicules.

WhatsApp messages and Facebook pages and posts are shared that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi does not only have one rival or nemesis that he has to beat but he has got other nemeses like Israel “despite having officially and unofficially excellent relations with Israel” , United States of America “despite official statements that we are having eternal strategic relations with the US especially with Trump’s administration” , Qatar “because of course it should be there”, Turkey “because of Erdogan”, the Muslim Brotherhood “Naturally” and Iran “oh yeah !!”

A pro-Sisi billboard 

That post went viral in the past 48 hours.

Now some pro-government TV hosts and journalists are saying that there are too many polling stations and thus we won’t notice long queues like before.
Technically speaking queues are not expected in early Morning on Monday because it is a busy business day. People are expected to show up later in the afternoon or evening.

Needless to say, there is a new level of incentive to make people show up at the polling station.

RIP Rim Banna of Nazareth , the modern voice of Palestine

On Saturday the news came that 51-years-renowned Palestinian singer Rim Banna passed away after six years of struggling with cancer.

Banna, the daughter of Nazareth was Palestine’s most female famous singer in the past decade bringing traditional Palestinian folkloric songs to the modern times with her sweet voice.
A daughter of renowned Palestinian poetess and activist Zuhaira Sabbagh, Rim Banna was also an activist in her way supporting her people’s quest for survival, freedom and independent rightful state.

She was a leading icon of modern Palestinian resistance that used art to remind that cruel world that there are people called Palestinians and they won’t give up that right of having their independence.

Late Rim Banna of Palestine 

Here is my favorite song by her, a Palestinian folk song called “On the top of the mountain”

From a royal palace to a public school to a film studio : Sultana Melek’s Palace

Every time I pass by Heliopolis in Cairo, I must look around to see its remaining beautiful villas and palaces. One of my favorite palaces there is the Palace of Sultana Melek at Al-Oroba street which was turned in to a public school in the 1960s.

Sultana Meleks' palace with two strange banners

For decades the Heliopolis style building hosted Misr Gadida language school. In the time of elections, it turned in to a poll station, the President’s Polling station especially in the time of Mubarak.
From two weeks, I took a couple of photos of that beautiful building that was once the residence of Egypt’s only Sultana.
To my surprise, I found out that a big banner hanging on the building with the words “Qena police station” !!
What brought Qena police station of Upper Egypt to Cairo Heliopolis.
What was really strange to me was the fact that the Misr El-Gadida language school was still there !!!
I did not understand anything and I forgot to search what happened to the residence of that Turkish woman who became a Sultana for three years only.

A post shared by Zeinobia (@zeinobia) on Mar 23, 2018 at 2:22pm PDT

Only earlier Friday, I knew that the palace turned in to a public school has become a film studio recently and it is a location for popular actor Mohamed Ramadan’s TV series whose original setting is in Qena governorate, Upper Egypt.