COMESA praises NEA for conducting election honorably

CAIRO – 29 March 2018: Hop Kvingeri, head of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)’s mission to monitor 2018 presidential election, praised the National Election Authority (NEA) for conducting the election honorably.

During a press conference held on Thursday, Kvingeri applauded the great role fulfilled by the judges in monitoring the election professionally, referring that the mission toured the polling stations and has not noticed any irregularities.

She expressed her greetings to the security forces, who highly secured the presidential election during a sensitive period.

She further remarked that holding the election in three days has allowed Egyptians to participate in the election, praising women’s broad participation in the election.

Egypt’s presidential election, which took place between March 26 and 28, recorded a considerably high turnout of 40 percent as around 24 million people cast their vote nationwide over the last three days.

The 2018 presidential election witnessed a competition between only two candidates: incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and head of the el-Ghad Party Moussa Moustafa Moussa.

With the election looming, Sisi publicly called for record voter participation in an effort to boost the election's legitimacy. Turnout was moderate with relatively long queues outside polling stations, most of them elderly and female. Media outlets released several photos of women standing in lines waiting to cast their ballots. Other pictures and videos showed them dancing in front of polling stations and raising the Egyptian flag, along with pictures of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

Media figures, officials and actors have all called on Egyptians to partake in the election, calling it a national duty. Many of them went on to highlight that even if people disagree with the country’s current situation, they should look beyond their personal grievances for the country’s best interest.