Voting extended a day in Egypt

Egyptian officials worked to lure reluctant voters to the polls on the second and what had been scheduled to be the final day of voting. In addition to declaring Tuesday a government holiday, they also said that polling stations would remain open through Wednesday.

Voter turnout figures were not immediately available on Tuesday. However, news agency AFP cited the Egyptian ministry as saying that only 16 million people – or roughly 29.7 percent of eligible voters - had cast ballots for the country's next president.

The vote pits ex-army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi against leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. The military leader, who led the coup that deposed Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi last year, is widely expected to win the presidency.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which had backed Morsi, boycotted the polls on Tuesday, calling into question their legality. Dissidents who backed Egypt's 2011 revolution also refused to cast ballots, expressing fears that formally installing el-Sissi will lead to another era of autocratic rule in Egypt.

The military and police have been heavily deployed to secure polling stations during the vote following months of violence, which the military-backed government has blamed on Morsi's now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The polls mark more than three years of political turmoil that has seen two presidents ousted following mass protests. More than a thousand people have been killed since the crackdown in July with around 15,000 protestors, many Brotherhood supporters, arrested.

Final results are expected to be officially announced on June 5.

kms/jm (AFP, dpa)