the home page of abdel fatah al-sisi, there are lots of pictures of this sort of thing. you get the people holding up their fingers like this, this is the cr fo c for sisi. you should go doubt and do it to -- go out and do it too. by comparison, i go over to the official page of, bear with me one moment ever sabahi campaign, and what you see one thing like this, breaking news alert, special announcement about sabahi's view of all these sorts of things. their team is not updating their social media page nearly as much. although they have followers. this is someone's arm, you would see marks on their arms and their intimidation of some of their staff members. at least the way the potential teams are playing it. we mentioned the heat may be playing a role. if we could head to the aljazeera.com page, the weather, the high was 38° and 43. having said that right now the temperature is about 28° in cairo and still going higher throughout the lesser part of the day. it's definitely cooler in the early part of the day. right now it's 28° in cairo and heading for 35 a little bit l

many support the front runner abdel fatah al-sisi. >> this time, there are only two contenders. the front runner is again a military strongman. former defense minister abdel fatah al-sisi. >> the egyptians are coming down to where you the history and plan for their future. all the world is watching. >> reporter: the only other candidate for president is hamdin sobahi. who came in third in the 2012 election. >> i'm very proud of the young people in my campaign. i think they are the real heroes. >> reporter: there's also been a number of protests on polling day like in the hakim suburb of giza. a center for public opinion research suggests 12% of the more than 50 million people eligible to vote will boycott the election. a large portion are supporters of the outlawed muslim brotherhood. and feel al-sisi would move egypt back to military rule. security is a concern. there have been a number of attacks in the last few months against institutions including cairo university. goal of encouraging people to come out and vote. >> str we want security for the country. we don't want protest

the former general abdel fatah al-sisi is the apparent winner. the votes 68 ploaforts are a pra sham. >> three years after the arab spring, neither vote is free nor fair. syria's election is happening in the middle of a civil war. that's forced at least two and a half million people out of the country. egypt's comes less than a year after the military overthrew the country's first freely elected president, mohamed morsi. the leader of that coup, the former army chief, abdel fatah al-sisi is virtually guaranteed to win. trying to boost low voter turnout, the vote is extended to another day. >> the people think these votes are illegal, five elections before, all had gone in vain. >> sisi's critics say he needs a high turnout to legitimize the results. the vote in syria nearly assures that bashar al-assad will have another term. yrnz outside the -- syrians outside the country, one fifth of that population in lebanon, half of them have been displaced because of the war. thousands of syrian refugees are voting in lebanon, most of them for saud. they w

the only other candidate, abdel fatah al-sisi, says he is against the move. talking about these developments, abdalla, in the egyptian elections, you know the government is putting the figure of voter turnout at 37%. what does it tell you about how egyptians are actually feeling about the vote? >> i don't think we can confirm the figures, those sound inflated, the fact that they have extended voting into a third day, is trying to promote sisi's election something to be a consensus among all egyptian voters, they would also like to see the high turnout enthusiasm, in the rallies of months ago. the security problems that have happened since the coup last year, that egyptians have become very frustrated not just the pull into sisi and so on. >> is this the active boycott or apathy among the population? >> certainly a bit of both. those who are specificallily supporters of mohamed morsi and openly said that they splil simplsimply notare recognize th. some opportunity within the selection to try and appeal for some kind of a choice for egyptians have also cast the

. >>> egyptian presidential candidate abdel fatah al-sisi is promising new future, 92% of the vote. hundreds who boycotted the polls have been staging anti-coup rallies as georgi jamal fasal r. >> egypt's second largest city, alexandria, thousands of political prisoners currently behind bars. activists are billing this the second indian intefada. some say the number is as high as 40,000. many are crammed into small rooms forced to sleep on the ground with little or no sunlight. forcing prisoners to take drastic measures in a bid to secure their freedom. >> they treat my father very badly. they treat us badly when we go to visit him. that's why we have decided to gather with him to start an open-ended hunger strike until he is trowrnd us a free man. >> cheered him on in tahrir square. despite exit polls pointing to ah sisi having won over 92% of the vote, crowds gathered to celebrate. credibility of this year's election, including groups who monitored the polls. >> during presidential elections we had observers around the country but we feel that suppression and dissent and restricti

after the --, the huge favorite to win is the former army chief, i don't but all cc -- army chief, abdel fatah al-sisi. al-sisi is among the first to cast his vote in cairo, the beginning of a two-day election in egypt. make historywill today and tomorrow. may god stand by -- egyptians will make history today and tomorrow. may god stand by egypt. >> the veteran leftists finished third in the 2012 elections that brought muslim brotherhood back hooduslim brother mohamed morsi to power. >> they can see all the old people, all the older people waiting. they all want to make some change in the country. they are looking for a better future for us. i'm going to vote for al-sisi. he can make a better economy for us. military guy.is a don't enter politics. picture a different southwest of the capital. one of only three polling stations on the outskirts of the city has drawn just several dozen voters. are in front of walls stenciled with graffiti of pro-morsi martyrs. they boycott the vote. >> we will stay put in the street for 10 years if necessary. luck had to be spilled in every revolution around the

is lit with an agency of government the spread of items the egyptian presidential come to that abdel fatah of things he says about the muslim brotherhood group will never return. nigerian isn't it threatened to sell hundreds of kids out gocco the sun we demonstrate to school on the government to get them is to go back the unknown. it is. this is just too old but relaxed evacuation and tragic. i asked what does this happen and what can be improved with new technologies. it kept its main reference and a matching his take on the backs of the bathrooms and the passengers and crew. i'm sure they are a tiny kitten throwing in some areas are not accessible by making my way of knowing that people try to fight the ship. sydney a chapter on reports recruitment each room and house to check the area he or she is in charge. recall to the center evacuation point then the center evacuation point. reports in the region said we know how many people are in each section. how many evacuated to get started. a range of technological solutions as being the ads aimed at making evacuations by the time. coconut lea

everybody mosques were used with calls blaring with a message if you love god go and vote to abdel fatahsi. al sisi was only one of two candidates contesting the polls, he was the former general in the army that courts mohamed morsi. but voter numbers remained low so the he had lex commission announced tuesday they were extending the poll by one more day. claim that go weather had presurrendered many from taking part. but the last time th the egyptis voted in a president was in may 2012, the weather was identical, the pictures were not. back then long queues. the apparent low turn out in this year's election has been interpreted differently by all sides. the anti--coup alliance and the muslim brotherly have hailed it a victory. while others say it's a blow for the coup leaders. >> translator: the military in egypt is at its weakest point the coup is toppled and toppled by the empty ballot boxes. >> reporter: the result are said to be announced june if i feelth but the winner could be announced much earlier if the votes are finished being counted. the out come. election has never really b

the streets of cairo are plastered with his image, field marshal abdel fatah al sisi. the former defense minister who just last summer deposed egypt's first democratically elected president. the muslim brotherhood backed mohamed morsi. morsi is now in prison along with tens of thousands of his supporters. part of a massive crackdown on the muslim brotherhood that left more than a thousand people dead. but sisi's tough tactics appeal to a lot of people here. that is exactly what liberal activist mohamed nabil, who boycotted today's election, is afraid of. >> reporter: so they are choosing stability over freedom. >> bye, bye, muburak! >> reporter: it is a chilling thought for nabil who first took over tahrir square three years ago to protest the dictatorship of hosni mubarak, and now watches as another military strongmen cements his hold on power. we visited about a dozen polling stations around the city today and it was interesting because we didn't see any big crowds. one sisi supporter even conceded to me that even he was surprised by how few people were on the street

>> well you know, i think abdel fatah al-sisi has a different view for the government than did mubarakr morsi did. he hasn't told us and that's on purpose, he does have a lot of interest in how religion tracks with governance. he has written pieces before about how you cannot separate religion from politics in muz lynn lim -- mu muslim countries. he is not a mubarak holdover. >> why is that? >> because he doesn't really have a plan. the important thing here is the fact that nobody can succeed as president of egypt. the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is the economy. the economy is in a state of total collapse at the present time. so what we are seeing now is these vague plans of energy saving lightbulbs and things like that. while at the same time for example, sisi cannot get rid of the subsidies of food and petroleum products that take plactheplace of 50% of the budg. >> both men has promised that this is something they will deliver on. is that really a promise they can really keep? >> not at the level that people expect. the reality is no outside help is going to be

they cast their ballots in an election that's expected to install former army chief abdel- fatah al-sisi as the country's next leader. voting continues tomorrow. so far, there's been a strong turnout among women. >> they are very, very, very active really and they've begun to feel how important their country is and this is totally new. we were never used to vote. and now we think of the best for our country and we try to read and understand and analyze. >> woodruff: al-sisi ousted egypt's first freely-elected leader, mohammed morsi, whose muslim brotherhood supporters have urged their followers to boycott the vote. >> woodruff: the nigerian military says it knows where nearly 300 abducted school girls are being held, but won't use force to get them back, for fear the girls would be harmed. nigeria's state news agency quoted the chief of defense staff as saying they know where the islamist militant group boko haram is holding them. the girls were taken from their school seven weeks ago. since then, boko haram has killed nearly 500 other civilians in its fight to establish an islamic state

which many observers expect to be a route with overwhelming support going to retired army chief abdel fatahsisi, who steps down in march to run. his opponent finished third in the 2012 election that brought down now-deposed president mohamed morsi, that brought morsi to power. but with the muslim brotherhood party banned, critics are calling the election ill ejimt. results are expected in june. >>> police in belgium on the hunt for a killer, releasing via of a man they say opened fire with an ak-47, killing four people at a jewish museum in brussels. security stepped up at jewish sites across the country. the victims have been identified as an israeli couple visiting from tel aviv, a french citizen and a worker at the museum. >>> happening today, track star oscar pistorius heading to a psychiatric hospital in pretoria for an assessment. his mental health now key to his murder trial. a judge decided his actions may have been affected by an anxiety disorder when he shot and killed his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. he'll spend seven hours a day at the hospital for up to 30 days. >> out-patient

former army chief abdel fatah al-sissi is all but certain to win, but he'd wanted a strong show of support. >> ifill: the islamist militant group boko haram has struck again in nig officials say gunmen killed at least 54 people last night in the north. 45 of the victims were soldiers and police killed in yobe state. nine others were shot to death in two villages in borno state. the militants are still holding 270 school girls kidnapped last month. >> woodruff: in iraq, a suicide bomber killed at least 19 people when he blew himself up in central baghdad. the attacker set off his explosives inside a shiite mosque as worshippers arrived for noon prayers. in addition to the dead, dozens of people were wounded. >> ifill: pope francis is going ahead with plans to meet with people sexually abused by priests, but a u.s. group says it will be "meaningless." the head of s.n.a.p., "the survivors network of those abused by priests," argued today the church still needs to institute real reforms. the pope addressed the issue monday, on his flight home from the middle east. >> a priest who does this bet

that only those voting in support of general abdel fatah c c told me at the polling stations where they held parties and sung and danced in the streets he was the only man for the job they said they needed a military leader to take egypt through this very difficult time we've seen a spike in terror attacks which is negatively affected the economy however there has been some issues of turnouts in the last few days the egyptian government has panicked that the turnout might be as little as ten percent they've extended the voting by an extra day which technically bens electoral law the prime minister announced that people might be fined seventy dollars if they didn't vote so this was definitely an issue that they were talking about because egypt is a t.c. needs that stumper just to mislead the nation a high turnout would give their approval for his candidacy and also the last ten months of a crackdown on his opponents more than forty thousand people have reportedly been arrested and hundreds killed in the last ten months and the missing brotherhood's say that this is an illegitimate poll a

countless protests and deadly clashes with the military since the country's been taken over by abdel fatah al c.c. the head of egypt's military well over sixteen thousand protesters have been arrested and over fifteen hundred people died at the hands of the police but nothing could prepare the world for what happened on march twenty four when five hundred twenty nine suspected morsy supporters were sentenced to die when. the most egregious mass death sentences ever handed down most of the people were tried in absentia and our courts in the country are still battling the sentences trying to commute many to life in prison and lawyers are still attempting to appeal the ruling but despite international condemnation over the sentencing just one month later the egyptian military court issued an even crazier verdict by handing down a mass death sentence for almost seven hundred people at once including the spiritual leader of the muslim brotherhood mohamed body not to mention several journalists are still being held in dire conditions by egypt's military including al jazeera reporter abdulla mean

egypt's former military chief abdel fatah i'll say c. is heading for an emphatic victory in the country's presidential election according to early results as a poll suggests estate has secured more than ninety five percent of the vote the result will be announced within five days. reports on b b is that the new president won't be able to enable his promises. well certainly those voting in support of general abdul fatah sisi told me at the polling stations where they hope parties and some advance in the street he was the only man for the job they said they needed a military leader to take egypt through this very difficult time you see a spike in terror attacks which is negatively affected the economy however there has been some issues of turnouts in the last few days the egyptian government has panics that the turnout might be as little as ten percent they've extended the voting by an extra day which technically bens electoral law the prime minister announced that people might be fined seventy dollars if they didn't vote so this was defin