Egypt extends presidential vote for extra day

A voter shows her inked finger after voting, outside a polling station on the second day of voting in the Egyptian election in Cairo, May 27, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO - Egypt's presidential election commission decided Tuesday to extend the two-day presidential voting period for one extra day, making it three full days of voting inside the country, state-run MENA news agency reported.

"The purpose is to give the opportunity for a large number of voters to cast their votes and also to give a chance for non- resident voters to return to their original provinces to cast their votes," MENA quoted an election commission member as saying.

The Egyptian government had officially announced the second voting day as a public day off to increase the amount of participation in the polls. Meanwhile, the election body canceled the extra hour it decided earlier to extend for the second voting day.

Ex-military chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, is poised to score an easy win over his sole rival in the race, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabahy, who came third in the 2012 presidential election.

The former military chief won 94.5 percent of the votes cast by over 300,000 overseas Egyptians in 124 countries last week.

About 54 million people are eligible to cast their votes in around 14,000 polling stations across the country's 27 provinces.