Only 434,368 out of the 4 million Egyptian expatriates eligible to vote have registered for the upcoming presidential poll, an Egyptian government official said Tuesday.
The registration rate for expatriate voters, which is displayed on the website of the Presidential Elections Commission, is “not promising,” Tarek Saad, a senior official at the Local Development Ministry, told independent daily Al-Shorouk.
Saad said most of those who have registered had already cast their ballots in the recent parliamentary elections, and that only 79,000 new voters have signed up for the presidential race.
He described these low numbers as totally unexpected, considering the fact that voter registration opened on 5 March and will end on 4 April.
Earlier this week, the Foreign Ministry encouraged Egyptians abroad to hurry up to register on the ministry’s website.
