Egyptians in African countries actively partake in election

CAIRO –18 March 2018: Egyptian communities continue posting their votes for the second consecutive day of the expat voting for the 2018 presidential election.

Sudan-based nuns were spotted casting their ballots in the March vote at the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum.

Egypt’s Ambassador to Sudan Osama Shaltout said that the embassy has directly contacted the Egyptian communities in Sudan and published all information relating to the electoral vote in the Sudanese newspapers.

He further added that the embassy has received a large number of voters, particularly young people and women. “Some of them traveled 700km to get to the embassy headquarters to post their votes.”

Bishop Antonios Morcos, Bishop of the Egyptian Orthodox Church in South Africa, and members of the church also voted in the presidential election at the Egyptian embassy in Pretoria.

Ahmed Bakr, Egypt's ambassador to Gabon, told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Saturday that the Egyptian communities in Gabon were keen to vote despite them being small in numbers.

Amid a high turnout of Egyptians residing in Eritrea, the Egyptian embassy received several congratulatory cables from Eritrean citizens and officials on the occasion of the historic event, stated the ambassador of Egypt to Eritrea in press statements.

The Egyptian embassy in Uganda posted pictures on its official Facebook page of the embassy staff and Egyptian nationals casting their ballots in the 2018 presidential election.

In Angola, the turnout was not quite as high, as Fridays are regular working days, but the turnout is expected to increase over the coming two days, Egyptian Ambassador to Angola Khaled Abdel Rahman said on Friday.

He also added that the embassy is operating in full coordination with the Angolan authorities to ensure that the electoral process is smooth.

Egyptian Ambassador to Ethiopia Abubakar Hefny urged Egyptians to increase their participation in the voting process, contending that the electoral process is going on smoothly since its outset early Friday.

According to the latest 2017 statistics of the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), numbers of Egyptian communities are the lowest in the African countries and around 46,872 Egyptians are recorded to be residing in a number of African countries.

Eligible Egyptian voters abroad started casting their ballots at Egyptian embassies and consulates around the world Friday and will continue until Sunday.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and al-Ghad Party head Moussa Moustafa Moussa are the only candidates approved to run in the election. The voting process officially commences for Egyptians residing inside the country on March 26 and will last until March 28.