Egyptians voted today in an extended presidential election seen as a plebiscite on the ex-army chief, after turnout fell below that in the poll won by the Islamist leader he ousted.
The move to extend polling by a day raises further questions about the democratic credentials of an election already marred by a deadly crackdown on the main opposition, experts said.
The electoral commission said that over the scheduled two days of polling Monday and Tuesday just 37 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots -- well below the nearly 52 per cent who voted in the 2012 election that brought Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi to power.
The low turnout came despite a personal appeal from retired field marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who had been seeking vindication for his overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's only freely elected president, after a single turbulent year in power.
Sisi, who is expected to win in a landslide against his sole rival, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, had urged "40, 45 (million) or even more" of Egypt's 53 million eligible voters to turn out to give credibility to an election boycotted by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and influential secular groups.
After reports of a meagre numbers at polling stations on the first day of voting Monday, Sisi's backers in the state-run media appealed to people to go out and vote.
An electoral official said polling had been extended to "give a chance to the largest possible number of voters to cast their ballots."
Today, several Cairo polling stations visited by AFP were nearly deserted in the initial hours of voting.
"They didn't get enough votes, so they extended polling into a third day," complained filmmaker Mohamed Ali Hagar, who said he would stay away regardless.
"All elections in this country are rigged."
"The state is searching for votes," said a front-page headline of Al-Masry Al-Youm, a newspaper that usually backs Sisi.
The extension of polling casts doubt on the vote's credibility, experts said.
