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.
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)