High turnout of Egyptian expats witnessed in 3rd day

CAIRO - 18 March 2018: The Ministry of Immigration continued to follow up on the third day of the 2018 presidential election abroad through its operation rooms. The ministry stated that it witnessed a high turnout of Egyptian expats particularly in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan.

The room is fully equipped with the required devices to communicate and monitor the election process; in addition, it communicates with Egyptian embassies across the globe to resolve any obstacles that might hinder the process.

The room has received 310 inquiries on Saturday and Sunday. Most of them were asking about the possibility of voting at one of the Egyptian embassies even if they don’t have a residency permit in the foreign country.

Most of the inquiries came from citizens in Belgium, Russia, U.S., Canada, Jordan, KSA, UAE, Qatar, Italy, Libya, Australia and the UK.

The Ministry of Immigration has launched an operation room to follow up on the 2018 presidential election abroad which kicked off on Friday and is set to last until Sunday. The operation room was launched under directives from Makram, to ensure an easygoing ballot casting process for Egyptian expatriates.

The Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs has provided hotline numbers to receive any complaints from expatriates during the three-day voting process in the presidential election.

The statement indicated the following numbers for complaints: 01289850655, 01008113352, 01553486360 and 01128856655. It also provided an email for receiving complaints: Egyptiansabroad@emigration.gov.e.

Egyptian embassies in 124 countries opened their doors on Friday at 9 a.m. to allow voters to cast their votes on the first day of the presidential election, to choose between two candidates; the current President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

Makram praised the high turnout in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. In her statements to Extra News channel, Makram described the turnout in the three Arab countries as “delightful,” adding that the countries have provided facilities for Egyptian nationals to participate in the elections.