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Egypt extends presidential vote after low turnout reports

– ‘World is watching’ –

Sisi had issued a personal plea for a large turnout on Monday as he cast his ballot.

“The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow,” he said.

The rival candidates have portrayed the vote as a choice between stability and the freedoms promised by the region’s pro-democracy uprisings.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, has been rocked by turmoil since the 2011 uprising which has ravaged its economy. READ: Egypt jails 19 Morsi supporters for five years.

Sisi’s ouster of Morsi on July 3 triggered the worst peacetime bloodshed in Egypt’s recent history, but the ex-army chief has vowed to stamp out the violence.

A big security force deployment prevented any major polling day incidents.

“We need an iron fist to restore the situation,” said 63-year-old engineer Kamal Mohamed Aziz, who voted for Sisi.

But civil servant Karim el-Demerdash said he chose Sabbahi, to preserve the gains of the 2011 uprising.

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“I am sure that the election results are already decided but this is the last attempt to bring the revolution into power,” he said.

Sisi has said “true democracy” will take a couple of decades, and suggested he will not tolerate protests disrupting the economy.

He has also pledged to eliminate the Brotherhood, which won every election following Mubarak’s overthrow after being banned for decades.

“Forgery will never grant legitimacy to a butcher nor will it lessen the determination of revolutionaries,” the Brotherhood said.

The Islamist movement has been decapitated by a police crackdown that has killed more than 1,400 people and left all of its top leaders in jail or exile.

Morsi himself has been detained and put on trial.

“This election will not wipe the slate clean after 10 months of gross human rights violations,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International.

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