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Egyptians vote abroad, leadership contest heats up

By Tom Pfeiffer and Sherine El Madany

CAIRO

(Reuters) – Egypt’s presidential election, set to be the freest it has ever had, began for citizens

abroad on Friday after a caustic televised debate between two candidates that produced no clear

favourite to lead the most populous Arab nation.

Egyptian presidential hopefuls Amr Moussa (R) and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh smile during a 

televised debate in Cairo May 10, 2012. REUTERS/Almasry Alyoum Newspaper /Mahmoud Khaled /Handout
Egyptian presidential hopefuls Amr Moussa (R) and Abdel Moneim

Abol Fotouh smile during a televised debate in Cairo May 10, 2012. REUTERS/Almasry Alyoum Newspaper

/Mahmoud Khaled /Handout

Egyptians who overthrew President Hosni Mubarak as

uprisings hit the Arab world last year are savouring the spectacle of politicians competing for their

votes. The streets are abuzz with argument over who is the best man to tackle poverty and corruption

and uphold their new-found freedoms.

With no obvious winner for now, the fewer than 1 million

expatriates registered to vote in consulates between May 11 and 17 may help swing the election. Recent

polls suggest the race is wide open, with many citizens yet to make up their minds.

Expatriates

who have registered to vote are a minority among the 6 to 8 million Egyptians who live abroad, mostly

in Europe, North America and Gulf Arab states, according to official figures cited by local

media.

In France, Abd El Aal Shady, 55, an agriculture engineer living in Paris, said he had

voted for leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.

“He is the black horse of this presidential election because

he is the most famous to have fought the former government since he was a student,” Shady said. “If

(Amr) Moussa wins, it is catastrophic for the people. It leads to a second revolution.”

Hundreds

of Egyptians queued in front of their embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh to cast their votes. “For the

first time in my life, I take part in elections, and I don’t know how it will end or who will win,”

said one of them, Mahy Samir.

In Rome, Aiman Younes, 45, a pizza maker, said he had voted for

Abol Fotouh because he deemed him honest. “I think it will get better. We are going through some

difficulties but I hope things will improve, we just need a bit of time,” Younes said.

“Egypt is

not used to this sort of thing. Slowly people will get used to it. I want the new president to focus on

helping poor people, and making sure everyone has enough to eat.”

Gihan Defi, 36, a housewife

with three children in Rome, said she had cast her ballot for Moussa. “We don’t want to fight, we just

want things to be settled, and for peace in the country,” she said. “I want the new president to help

the country, help women and children, and make Egyptians happy.”

NO LONGER SCIENCE

FICTION

In Cairo’s sheesha (water-pipe) cafes and on Twitter, Egyptians swapped impressions of

Thursday night’s unprecedented televised stand-off between Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and Amr

Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mubarak.

“If you didn’t enjoy the debate like me,

remember that if someone told you a couple of years ago that there would be a presidential debate, you

would have thought it was a sci-fi movie,” tweeted Mohamed Diab.

The disorganised build-up to

the first-round vote on May 23 and 24 has been marred by deadly street clashes in Cairo and lingering

suspicions that the generals now in charge will try to manage democracy from behind the scenes after

formally handing over to civilians by July 1.

Egypt has never had a genuinely contested

presidential election. But several candidates were disqualified last month and two recent court

verdicts have challenged regulations for the vote, deepening the impression of a chaotic and fragile

political transition towards a more democratic future.

A supreme administrative court was due on

Saturday to view the state’s appeal against one of the court rulings which demanded the postponement

of the election.

Egypt’s democratic experiment is being closely watched by long-time ally the

United States and neighbouring Israel, both unnerved by the sweeping success of Islamists who were long

repressed by Mubarak but who now dominate parliament.

Liberal and left-wing activists who helped

topple Mubarak have struggled to translate their success on the streets into a prominent role in

politics. The presidential campaign is mostly a contest between Islamists and Mubarak-era

figures.

Policy paralysis and political bickering have drained some of the optimism that greeted

Mubarak’s ousting in February 2011.

MARATHON DEBATE

The Moussa-Abol Fotouh debate lasted

more than four hours and may have entrenched the impression that they are the main contenders. The two

independent TV stations that aired it said they had been invited because they topped recent opinion

polls.

But many viewers complained of an irritable and negative tone in their exchanges that may

hand votes to other candidates, such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, Mubarak’s last prime

minister, Ahmed Shafiq, and Sabahy, the leftist.

“Moussa attacks but doesn’t answer questions.

He should have proven with examples that he wasn’t part of the old regime,” advertising company

employee Mostafa Mohamed said at a cafe in the centre of the capital.

Mohammed Al-Ayouti said on

Twitter: “Both candidates lost, but Abol Fotouh lost more than Amr Moussa.”

Both bespectacled

and dressed in suits and ties, Abol Fotouh and Moussa touched on taxation, police reform, education,

the health care system and the role of the powerful military – which they both said should stay out of

politics.

Moussa cast himself as the statesman Egypt needed to lead it through “a crisis of

existence”. Abol Fotouh said he was the man to unite the country and end “a state of polarisation”

between liberals, leftists and Islamist.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote

in the first round, a run-off between the two top-placed contenders will take place in

June.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan in Cairo, Alice Cannet in Paris, Marwa Rashad in

Riyadh, Elisa Oddone in Berlin, Catherine Hornby in Rome; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Alistair

Lyon/Mark Heinrich)

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