Egyptians go to the polls gripped by Sisi mania

The great pyramids of Giza materialise out of the morning mist, their forms growing sharp, their rough edges clearly defined.

Nearby, hang banners urging Egyptians to vote for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who is standing against leftist Hamdeen Sabahi in the second presidential election since the toppling in 2011 of Hosni Mubarak, who was president for 30 years.

A clutch of empty tourist buses stands at the entrance to the plateau hosting the pyramids and the sphinx.

At the Ramsis school, men and women wait in separate lines to vote for a new presi- dent. The mood is festive and raucous. Women in party finery ululate as they do at weddings. “Sisi yes, Obama no!” chants a woman in red.

Inside the polling station for women a young judge in neat black suit and tie directs each voter to the correct team checking identity cards and handing out ballots bearing pictures of the two candidates and their names.

‘Sisi is not like Morsi’ More than 5,000 people are on the list to cast their ballots at this station. In 2012 people here voted for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted after just one year in office.

Kaftan-clad taxi driver Abdel Aziz Bashar plucks at my sleeve. “Sisi is not like Morsi. Please write that Egypt is good. Tourists can come here. Sisi will end the Brother- hood’s terrorism.”

Across from a second school a two-storey banner bearing Sisi’s portrait hangs from a balcony. Women enter the voting station one by one.

“I have voted in every election since the revolution, hoping things will get better,” says Mona, a tall, handsome woman with sleek black hair.

The narrow alleyway is unpaved, choked with rubble and rubbish. Two horses tethered to the back of a carriage stand aside as camels, their high saddles fastened over colourful tasselled kelims, lope along the potholed road.

Two Japanese tourists board a kneeling camel that then rises awkwardly to its feet. Locals are desperate: without tourists there is no work and no money. Families, horses and camels go hungry.

On the pyramid road there is a single banner portraying Sabahi, the first I have seen in Cairo.

In spite of reports that six explosive devices have been defused in Giza, long lines of enthusiastic voters are wrapped around the Sadat School. Women flash the victory sign and chant, “Sisi, Sisi, Sisi!”

A little girl’s face is painted with the colours of the Egyptian flag. Men take selfies with their phones, and joke and cheer for Sisi.

Sisi mania This is the heartland of “Sisi mania”. “Sisi has the support of the Egyptian people. He will solve all the problems of the economy and work. The biggest danger in the world is religious fanaticism,” says Magda, a woman in headscarf and long dress. She reaches out to a bareheaded woman in blue next to her. “She is Christian, I am Muslim: she is my friend,” she says.

In the shade of a colourful tent outside the school in upmarket Dokki Square stand silent, solemn, sedate businessmen. Marketing consultant Mohamed El-Bashari says in US-accented English: “Egypt holds a very important strategic position and has great political weight. Every Egyptian has to understand and appreciate these factors.

“Egypt needs someone with charisma to get all Egyptians together and proceed with change. We must all work . . . God help whoever is in charge.”

At the heart of Old Cairo, where Sisi was born and brought up, Khan Khalili bazaar is empty. Touts beg customers to eat at the restaurants. Behind the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar mosque lie alleys flanked with crumbling houses reeking of poverty. At Zahrad school teachers have covered grimy classroom walls with pupils’ bright art.

By the time the muezzins announce midday prayers 300 women have voted in one room and 500 men in the other. But there are no long lines in the alley and no Sisi mania.

A man in one of the small shops selling Korans whispers “Morsi”, who is in prison awaiting trial for incitement, murder and fraud. Sisi, who overthrew him, is the man of the moment.

Towards the end of the day, more than a third of voters on the lists of the two polling stations at the fine arts college in Sisi mania-gripped upscale Zamaled have cast their ballots. Sisi is certain to win but seeks a large turnout.