As Egypt’s presidential elections come to an end, there is no longer any suspense over who will win

There were four men on the ballot when Egyptians voted in this week’s presidential election, but with a rare exception, only one of their faces stared out from billboards, banners, buses and lampposts across Egypt: that of President Abdel Fattah el- Sisi.

According to the government, Mr el-Sisi won 97 percent of the vote in his last two election campaigns. 2014 And 2018. “We are all with you,” many of the pro-Sisi banners read, as if anticipating a similar outcome this time.

At polling stations, which closed Tuesday at the end of three-day voting, “Oh Egypt, My Love” and other patriotic songs were played at nightclub-worthy volumes, while the glowing newspaper headlines It told of newlyweds so devoted to the nation that they still showed up to the polls in tuxedos and white gowns.

In a country with virtually no room for dissent, with a tightly controlled media and a paralyzed opposition, Mr el-Sisi’s victory is not a matter of great tension. Official energy seemed instead to be spent on boosting turnout – a measure of Mr el-Sisi’s popularity as an economic crisis and deep resentment and the despair it has caused would probably be depressing otherwise.

The effort to vote seemed to bring unsubtle encouragement.

Four people in the capital Cairo said they had each received 200 Egyptian pounds – the equivalent of about $6.67 – after voting. Several others said they only voted because they had heard they would be fined if they didn’t, or because their employers had given them time off with explicit instructions to use it to vote.

The thought of selecting one of the other three candidates, all unknowns, did not seem to occur to anyone. A few said they had deliberately ruined their ballots by checking all four boxes; the rest said they voted for Sisi.

Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s state information service, said in a statement that while there was a fine for not voting on the books, it was never applied in practice. He said providing money or goods in exchange for votes was a criminal offense but dismissed allegations of such offers as “rumors.”

Voters who said they received payments explained they needed the money. Others, disparaging the election, said they had skipped voting altogether.

“I used to like Sisi a lot, but now I’m tired of it,” said Nadia Assran, 63, who, instead of voting, had coffee with her sister in Cairo’s lower-middle-class Shubra neighborhood on Sunday.

Such coffee breaks are becoming increasingly expensive and therefore increasingly rare. Then there was the problem of paying for her daughter’s wedding expenses, or simply finding affordable sugar and onions at a time of rising inflation.

Ms. Assran cited the roads, bridges and shiny new cities that Mr. el-Sisi has built around Egypt, which are being hailed by officials and state media as a major presidential achievement.

“This is good for our sons and grandsons,” said Mrs. Assran, a widow who survives on a pension from her husband’s job as a police officer. “But how does it help me now?”

Her sister, Hana Assran, 50, gestured with her hand to some nearby Sisi banners.

“Why should we vote? He’s going to make it anyway,” she said, reflecting widespread cynicism about the outcome. “And why do you spend so much on election propaganda when we struggle so much with prices?”

Although it dropped slightly in November, annually inflation reached record highs of almost 40 percent this year, as Egypt grapples with an economic crisis that has seen the currency’s value plummet and basic items disappear from supermarket shelves.

The £200 voters said they received for casting their vote was worth around $12.50 in 2019. constitutional referendum granted Mr el-Sisi the right to run for a third term, extended the presidential term from four to six years and gave him greater powers. Now it’s worth about half that.

Economists say Egypt’s economic implosion stemmed from mismanagement, particularly Mr el-Sisi’s lavish spending on arms and weapons. mega projects such as new cities, a wave that piled unsustainable debt on what had already been structural defective economy.

The country managed to evade a settlement until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Egyptian officials have attributed Egypt’s problems to external causes such as the war and the coronavirus pandemic.

Egypt says it is opening up its politics, pointing to initiatives such as a much-discussed one dialogue between government and opposition figures.

But Mr el-Sisi, a former general who came to power in a military takeover in 2013, has also managed to convince many Egyptians that they need a strong leader like him to end the war, chaos and destruction that has swallowed up many Egyptian leaders. neighboring countries in recent years, including Libya, Sudan and now the Gaza Strip.

“At least we are assured of safety and security,” said Nadia Negm, 28, a housewife in Shubra al-Khaima, a working-class neighborhood northeast of Cairo, who said she proudly voted for Mr el-Sisi. “Yes, it is difficult, but at least we are better off than other countries.”

Ms. Negm, like other Sisi supporters interviewed, pointed out that many other countries were also facing high inflation and deficits, a common refrain in state-controlled media.

But for others who refused to vote or said they only voted because they heard they would be fined if they didn’t, the humiliation of not knowing how they would pay for next week’s meals, of having to break of the betrothal of a child due to lack of The funds to cover wedding expenses or to be constantly in debt outweighed their fear of instability.

“Safety and safety must also be applied to food and jobs,” says Mahmoud Mohamed, 65, a coffeehouse waiter in Banha, a small town in Egypt’s Nile Delta, who says he has fallen into a cycle of monthly borrowing just to to repay the previous month’s debts. “He promised us so much, but none of it came to fruition.”

However, the war in neighboring Gaza has done just that shifted the focus of some Egyptians back to other threats such as terrorism, which Mr el-Sisi says he has fought successfully in northern Sinai, and which many Egyptians see as Israel’s drive Pushing Gazans across the border into Egypt.

Yasmine Fouad, 39, owner of a mobile phone accessories shop in Banha, said she initially planned to postpone the election as a silent protest against Mr el-Sisi and the inflation he has presided over.

The crisis in Gaza has changed her mind.

“Right now, we all have to stand behind the president because anything can happen,” she said. “That makes us accept the current situation.”