In Egypt, explosion at pro-Sisi election rally injures 4

An explosion at an election rally for presidential front-runner Abdel Fattah Sisi injured four people, including two policemen, state media reported Sunday. The candidate was not in attendance.

Sisi, who left the military two months ago to run for president, has made virtually no campaign appearances, with aides citing security concerns. The former field marshal told a TV interviewer this month that there had been two attempts on his life, but gave no details.

By contrast, Sisi’s sole opponent, liberal politician Hamdeen Sabahi, has been barnstorming the countryside. While he has drawn appreciative crowds at rallies, he is seen as having little chance of victory in the May 26-27 vote.

The explosion at the pro-Sisi rally in Cairo, apparently caused by a homemade device, took place late Saturday, Egypt’s official news agency reported. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the country has been hit by a wave of attacks, most aimed at security forces, in the 10 months since the military-backed interim government took power.

Islamic militant groups have claimed responsibility for most of the strikes.

Sisi led the July coup that deposed Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president. The army moved against Morsi after huge nationwide protests demanding his ouster.

Morsi’s movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has denounced the presidential vote as invalid, insisting Morsi is still the rightful president. The former leader, along with nearly all his top lieutenants, is in jail, facing an array of charges.

Egyptian authorities, meanwhile, were working hard to drum up the largest possible turnout in the presidential vote, fearing that the election’s credibility would be dented if voters stayed away in large numbers. Voting by Egyptian expatriates, which was to have ended Sunday, was extended for an extra day, and election officials had already waived registration requirements.

Despite an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort by the government, turnout was lackluster in January’s constitutional referendum, which passed by an overwhelming margin. International observers suggested at the time that repressive measures taken by the interim administration had eroded political inclusiveness, contributing to the lower-than-expected turnout.

Political dissent in Egypt has been stifled for months by mass arrests, a tough anti-protest law and curbs on freedom of speech, among other steps, and more than 1,000 pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed by security forces last August.

Egyptian courts have also been carrying out mass sentencings, including more than 1,200 condemned to death in two cases, although the country’s top religious authority failed to uphold some of those death verdicts.

On Sunday, 126 alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced en masse to 10 years in jail in connection with unrest that broke out in mid-August after the violent dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-in camps.