CAIRO: Egyptian voters said they had received payments, food and other incentives to go to the polls as authorities sought on Wednesday to achieve the high turnout President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi wants to legitimize his all but guaranteed victory.
As voting went into the third and final day, turnout was seen as the critical factor in an election where any contest was eliminated through the arrest or intimidation of the former military commander’s most serious challengers.
El-Sisi said he wanted more opponents to stand, but instead faced just one who has been dismissed as a dummy candidate.
The election commission has said the vote is free and fair.
El-Sisi, who led the military overthrow of freely-elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013, has promised security and stability and to revive the economy after unrest that followed a 2011 popular uprising.
El-Sisi’s key allies include the United States and the powerful Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In the first two days of voting, turnout was estimated at well below the 47 percent of the electorate who backed El-Sisi for the first time in 2014. By Wednesday, authorities appeared desperate to garner a higher percentage.
Incentives
Voters interviewed by Reuters in the first two days of polling said they had been offered money, boxes of basic food and services to cast their ballots, or to at least ink their fingers to make it look as if they had.
“I’ve never voted before, and I didn’t intend to this time either,” a woman in Cairo’s working-class Ward estate said.
“I just went and dipped my finger in the paint and took the 50 pounds ($3),” she said. The woman declined to give her name for fear of reprisals by authorities.
Other women, who also declined to be named, said they had been promised bags of food containing rice and vegetable oil in exchange for votes.
“They told me that if I voted and showed them (the ink on) my finger I will get a bag,” said one, who also declined to be named.
The women did not say who exactly had given them money or bags of goods.
Managers at a government financial institution gave employees half of Monday off and ordered them to vote, one employee told Reuters. Employees were told to “not come back without ink on their fingers” and had their hands inspected the next day, the employee said.
Asked for comment, the presidency spokesman said this was not a matter for the presidency to address and referred Reuters to the National Election Commission and spokespeople for the presidential campaigns. Officials at the election commission and the government’s foreign press center did not immediately respond to calls and Whatsapp messages requesting comment.
Some people needed no inducement to vote. Noha Al-Nemr, voting in Cairo’s middle-class Mohandiseen district, said: “I voted for El-Sisi of course, because it’s enough that because of him, my family and I live in safety — even if there’s hardship.”
Incentives for voting were made more public in other areas.
In Beheira province, governor Nadia Abdou told Mehwar private TV channel on Monday: “Whichever municipality has the most votes, we will fix their water, sewage and electricity ... We will reward those people who came out in large numbers.”
Pro-government media, meanwhile, portrayed failure to vote as a betrayal of Egypt, the most populous Arab country.
“Betraying the martyrs“
Hosts of state-run radio programs told listeners that if they did not vote, they would be “betraying the blood of the martyrs in Sinai,” a reference to a military campaign against Islamist militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
An elderly woman in the Mohandiseen neighborhood of Cairo said she decided to vote after listening to the radio shows.
The vote virtually guarantees El-Sisi a win. His only opponent is an obscure politician loyal to the incumbent. More serious challengers were forced to step down and several opposition politicians called earlier this year for an election boycott.
El-Sisi has said he had nothing to do with opposition candidates pulling out, and has repeatedly urged the electorate to vote in great numbers.
Two sources monitoring the election, including one from the National Election Commission, said about 13.5 percent of 59 million eligible voters had cast ballots on Monday.
Egypt votes on final day, with all eyes on turnout
Egypt votes on final day, with all eyes on turnout
Israel seeks a ‘governing alternative’ to Hamas in Gaza. It’s been tried and failed before
- Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel "will not accept the rule of Hamas at any stage in any process aimed at ending the war"
- An Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs he has "not heard of any local players that are brave enough to present themselves as an alternative to Hamas"
JERUSALEM: Israel is looking into an alternative local governing body for Gaza, the defense minister said Sunday, proposing a future beyond Hamas but giving no idea who those challengers might be.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s comments came at a time of new uncertainty in the eight-month war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under growing pressure from many Israelis to accept a new ceasefire deal proposed by US President Joe Biden, while far-right allies threaten to collapse his government if he does.
Gallant, part of Israel’s three-member War Cabinet who recently urged the government to have a detailed postwar plan for Gaza, said in a briefing that “we seek a governing alternative to Hamas. The framework for this includes isolating areas, removing Hamas operatives in these areas and bringing in other forces that will enable the formation of a governing alternative.”
That will achieve Israel’s goals of removing Hamas’ military and governing authority in Gaza and returning home the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war, Gallant said. He stressed that “we will not accept the rule of Hamas at any stage in any process aimed at ending the war.”
In response to questions, an Israeli defense official told The Associated Press that Gallant hopes to enable isolated, Hamas-free areas in Gaza to become “hubs of local government” and identify forces that can enable a longer-term formation of a government.
Israel is looking for “local non-hostile actors,” the official said, adding that Gallant believes that “Palestinians should be governing Palestinians.” Israel would facilitate surges of aid to the areas, and the local forces would be responsible for distributing it to strengthen their authority.
But that approach is challenging and has failed before, one expert said.
“I haven’t heard of any local players that are brave enough to present themselves as an alternative to Hamas,” said Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University and a former military intelligence officer.
Milshtein said Gallant’s “wishful thinking” would amount to a suicidal mission for any local leader. Hamas has threatened anyone cooperating with Israel’s government.
“Although Hamas suffered severe damage over the past eight months, their impact on the public is still very strong,” he said.
Milshtein noted that Israel has tried this approach in the past. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Israel tried to establish “village leagues,” empowering local Palestinian leaders.
“They were considered in the eyes of Palestinians as collaborators, and it ended in a very tragic manner,” he said. Unless Israel maintains a constant presence in Gaza, any “alternative forces” they try to install will be too fragile, he added.
Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain security control over Gaza but delegate civilian administration to local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank. He has ruled out a path to Palestinian statehood.
Top ally the US has proposed that a reformed Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza with the assistance of Arab and Muslim nations.
The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 in southern Israel killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.
Over 36,430 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing it of operating from dense residential areas.
At least five people including a young girl were killed Sunday in a strike on a street in Zawayda, central Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials and AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital who counted the bodies.
The United States continued to press Israel on the ceasefire proposal outlined by Biden, who said Friday it’s time for the war to end. Many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and shelter with few supplies, large parts of the territory have been destroyed and the United Nations has warned of “full-blown” famine.
The deal’s first phase would last six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Biden acknowledged that moving into the next phase of the deal would require more negotiations.
“This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal – as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal – then Israel would say yes,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told ABC.
Also Sunday, officials from Egypt, Israel and the US ended a meeting in Cairo without any apparent agreement to reopen the crucial Rafah crossing into Gaza, which has been closed since Israel took over the Palestinian side of it in early May, Egypt’s state-run television channel Al-Qahera News reported.
Israel’s military continues to press into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, in search of what’s been described as Hamas’ last stronghold even as the militants regroup elsewhere in the territory.
Citing an unnamed official, Al-Qahera News said Egypt affirmed that Israel must withdraw its forces from the Palestinian side of the crossing before it can reopen. The report said Egypt accused Israel of blocking the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel denies.
Gaza mothers search for milk as malnutrition hits hard
GAZA STRIP: Amira Al-Taweel scoured pharmacies in northern Gaza for milk to feed her child, but could not find a single bottle to satisfy his hunger.
“Youssef needs treatment and milk, but there’s none available in Gaza,” the 33-year-old mother said at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central Gaza where her son was admitted suffering from malnutrition.
“I feed him, but no milk as it’s not available. I feed him wheat (flour) which makes him bloated,” she said, as Youssef lay on a narrow bed, his frail body receiving desperately needed medication through intravenous tubes in his feet.
The Hamas government media office said that at least 32 people, many of them children, have died of malnutrition in Gaza since the war broke out on Oct. 7.
Israel’s military campaign has killed 36,439 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
But aid agencies warn that the situation is even worse when it comes to children.
On Saturday, the World Health Organization said that more than four in five children had gone a whole day without eating at least once in 72 hours.
“Children are starving,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a statement.
The rise in malnutrition among Gaza’s children is largely a result of humanitarian aid that enters the Palestinian territory not reaching its intended destination, aid agencies said.
Since mid-January the UN humanitarian agency OCHA has screened more than 93,400 children under five in Gaza for malnutrition, including 7,280 who were found to be acutely malnourished.
Malnutrition is particularly prevalent in northern Gaza, which received little aid in the early months of the war.
Only in recent weeks has much of the food aid been diverted through new crossings after aid agencies warned of imminent famine.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that a total of 1,858 trucks of aid were inspected and sent into Gaza this week through its Kerem Shalom and Erez West crossings, including 764 from Egypt.
At Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, mothers were concerned about their malnourished children.
After Youssef and another baby boy, Saif, were admitted, their mothers sat next to them, worrying about how long they could survive on the food the hospital provides.
“We depend on the aid that comes here and is given to the children,” said Noha Al-Khaldi, mother of Saif, whose skin was stretched over protruding bones.
“All night long he suffers ... He was supposed to have an operation, but it was postponed.”
UAE’s foreign minister visits National Institute of Education in Singapore
- Minister affirms support in strengthening cooperation in the education sector
LONDON: The UAE’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited the National Institute of Education in Singapore on Sunday, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Founded in 1950, the NIE has been instrumental in developing Singapore’s teaching workforce.
Upon his arrival at the institute, Sheikh Abdullah was welcomed by Christine Goh, the NIE’s director professor.
The minister toured the institute’s facilities and was briefed on the NIE’s influential role in shaping and advancing Singapore’s educational system and contemporary teaching methodologies.
He praised the NIE as one of the world’s premier academic institutions in educational excellence and leadership. He highlighted that the NIE reflects Singapore’s robust educational system, a cornerstone of the nation’s overall development.
The foreign minister also emphasized the UAE’s commitment to strengthening educational cooperation with Singapore, noting that education is fundamental to sustainable development, progress, and the safeguarding of national achievements.
Sheikh Abdullah affirmed the UAE’s support in strengthening cooperation with Singapore in the education sector within the framework of the comprehensive partnership between the two countries.
Qatar slams Israeli attempt to classify UNRWA as a terrorist organization
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on international community to stand firm in the face of Israel’s plans
DOHA: Qatar has condemned Israel’s move to classify the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees as a terrorist organization, the Qatar News Agency reported on Sunday.
The Gulf state described the action as an attempt to undermine the agency’s diplomatic immunity and criminalize its humanitarian efforts at a time when the need for its services is paramount given Israel’s war in Gaza.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to stand firm in the face of Israeli plans to shut down the agency and deprive millions of Palestinians of vital services in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
The ministry reaffirmed Qatar’s unwavering support for UNRWA, emphasizing the country’s commitment to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. These include the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
Saudi Arabia and Jordan issued similar condemnations on Saturday.
Houthis fire barrage of drones, missiles at ships, including US destroyer
- Comes as Houthis claim to have made another reprisal hit on US ship in Red Sea
AL-MUKALLA: The US military said Yemen’s Houthi militia has fired a new wave of drones and missiles into international shipping lanes off Yemen, including two missiles aimed at a US warship in the Red Sea.
This comes as the Houthis claim to have made another reprisal hit on a US ship in the Red Sea.
The US Central Command said on Sunday that the Houthis launched three drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, one of which was destroyed by its forces, while the other two fell into the water, failing to strike any ship in the important commercial corridor.
The US military said in a statement on Sunday morning, Yemen time, that no injuries or damage was reported by the US coalition or commercial ships.
Also on Saturday, CENTCOM forces intercepted two anti-ship ballistic missiles in the southern Red Sea before they reached their target, the destroyer USS Gravely.
“The ASBM were fired in the direction of USS Gravely and were destroyed in self-defense, with no damage or injuries reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships,” the US military said in the same statement.
On Friday, the Houthis launched five drones and two ballistic missiles into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but did not hit any ships on the two commercial routes, CENTCOM said.
In Sanaa, the Houthis claimed on Saturday night to have carried out six strikes on commercial and navy ships, including one on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
In a videotaped statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said that their troops launched several ballistic missiles and drones at the US aircraft carrier and a US destroyer in the Red Sea.
The other four attacks targeted three ships: Maina in the Red Sea, the Al-Oraiq in the Indian Ocean, and the Abliani in the Red Sea, alleging that they had breached a ban on visiting Israeli ports.
Ship-tracking app Marine Traffic identified the Maina as a bulk carrier flying the Malta flag that left Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga early last month for Krishnapatnam Port in India.
The Marshall Island-flagged Al-Oraiq is an LNG tanker sailing from Ras Laffan in Qatar to Italy, while the Malta-flagged Abliani is a crude oil tanker sailing to the Suez Canal in Egypt, according to the app.
Since November, the Houthis have sunk one commercial ship, captured another, and claimed to have shot hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at more than 100 ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, and most recently the Mediterranean.
The Houthis claim that their actions are aimed solely at ships with links to Israel in an atempt to put pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, a claim challenged by the Houthis’ opponents in Yemen, who accuse the militia of exploiting the nationwide outrage of civilian deaths in Gaza to shore up their public support at home.
The US reacted to the Houthi assaults by labeling them as a terrorist organization, organizing a marine alliance to protect the seas, and launching airstrikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
Despite US assertions that its strikes have weakened the Houthis, analysts say the increasing number of Houthi attacks on ships demonstrate that the strikes are ineffectual and that the Houthis continue to feel that their attacks have increased their popularity.
“It (the surge in Houthi attacks] suggests that US-UK airstrikes against Houthi targets are not working, at least not yet and not as effectively as intended,” Elisabeth Kendall, a Middle East expert and head of Girton College at the University of Cambridge, told Arab News. “It suggests that the Houthis believe their attacks continue to work for them in terms of gaining broad popularity, international notoriety and greater leverage in ongoing efforts to end the Yemen war. They see no reason to stop,” she added.
Kendall said that maintaining strikes on ships, even with less accurate weaponry, is a win for the Houthis.
“The Houthis are resilient and the asymmetric nature of the Red Sea conflict plays to their advantage. The sophistication of their weaponry may diminish, but all they need to do is to keep going.”
