Demotix/Aly Hazzaa. All rights reserved.
Despite insistent calls for high participation by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, and various pro-government celebrities shortly before the elections, turnout rates for the first round remained low.
Official sources first claimed an interim turnout rate at 16 percent, a number later raised to 26.6 percent. However, it is likely that quite a remarkable number of voters participated only after receiving some money (which is of course difficult to verify or falsify); this rather confirms the suspicion that Egyptians, by and large, do not believe in the sense of these elections.
