A high number of Egyptians abroad have turned out to vote so far in the presidential election runoff, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Polls opened for expatriates Sunday in the runoff between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
Nearly 20,000 people went to the polls Sunday at Egyptian embassies and consulates abroad, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Amr Roshdy said in a statement published on the ministry’s website.
Kuwait had the highest voter turnout with 5,630 voters, followed by Riyadh with 3,000, Jeddah with 2,400, Doha with 1,975 and Abu Dhabi with 1,196.
Paris came out on top of other European countries, with 580 voters.
Roshdy described the figures as an indicator of expats’ anxiousness to take part in the electoral process. He said there is an increase in the number of voters Monday in comparison to the first round, adding that the numbers are expected to increase as the embassies in Europe begin to receive votes by mail on Monday.
Morsy led the first round of the election with 24.4 percent of the votes, followed by Shafiq with 23.3 percent.
Almost 38 percent of the votes in that round went to two moderate hopefuls who are widely seen as representative of revolutionary groups: Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi and former Muslim Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh. They took third and fourth place respectively.
The Presidential Elections Commission website said the total number of Egyptians abroad who had registered to vote in the runoff had reached 587,000. Out of those voters, 262,000 live in Saudi Arabia and 119,000 in Kuwait.
Voting for Egyptians abroad is set to end 9 June. The domestic vote is scheduled for 16 and 17 June.
