Egyptian will ready for polls between 26 and 28 to vote for president ,as per the timeline shared by the country's electoral commission. Voters will choose between two presidential candidates; incumbent president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and El-Ghad Party chairperson, Moussa Mostafa Moussa.
The interior ministry had earlier announced a state of emergency in all governorates of Egypt to ensure that security measures are already put in place at the 11,000 polling centers to facilitate the masses.The election’s security plan includes securing polling stations and the judges monitoring the elections during the voting and stay in place until the end of the vote counting process.
But critics claim that government is using security as a leverage to suppress the opposition.
Under a state of emergency, police and the military have authority to take unspecified measures "to confront the dangers and funding of terrorism and safeguard security,"
So far, authorities have used the state of emergency to censor media outlets and publications, bring "false news" charges against journalists who contradict official statements, refer civilians to military trial, and hold journalists incommunicado and in pre-trial detention indefinitely, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The polls will kick off in the wake of a weekend bomb in the coastal city of Alexandria that happened on Saturday. The armed forces are also tasked with securing all state vital institutions, archaeological sites and all main streets during the election and the period after electing the president.
Egyptians in New Zealand will be the first to cast their vote in the presidential election, as the diaspora heads to the polls more than one week before their compatriots at home.
