High temperature and fasting affect turnout - minister

Tuesday 27-05-2014 12:26 PM
High temperature and fasting affect turnout - minister

People hold up Sisi posters as they celebrate outside a polling station during the presidential elections in Cairo May 26, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

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CAIRO, May 27 (Aswat Masriya) Minister of Local Development Adel Labib said on Tuesday that the high temperature and the fact that many citizens are fasting for religious reasons are affecting the turnout in Egypt's presidential election. 

He added that the turnout increased at the end of the day to a point where polling stations could not take in voters due to their need to close at their scheduled time. 

He added that another problem was that some voters could not vote because they were away from their registered polling stations in different governorates. 

It is estimated that there are about 45 million eligible voters.

Egypt declared Tuesday a holiday on Tuesday in hopes to increase turnout in the second presidential election since the 2011 uprising. 

Egyptians began voting on Monday between former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. 

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