Egypt begins second day of voting as Sisi coasts towards victory

Egypt began the second of a three-day presidential election on Tuesday with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi set for an easy victory, after authorities urged people to cast their ballots to provide a strong mandate for the former military commander, Reuters reports.

Sisi faces just one challenger, who is expected to barely register against the incumbent, whom he supports.

Egyptian authorities hope that three days of voting will be enough to produce a decent turnout for Sisi. The president still has many supporters.

Egypt’s election commission said the election would be free and fair, and Sisi said he would have liked more candidates running. </s> France begins voting in second round of parliamentary election

Voting stations opened in France on Sunday for the second round of parliamentary elections, with opinion polls indicating President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party likely to win a massive majority in the lower house, Reuters reported.

Turnout could fall to a record low, in a sign of voter fatigue after seven months of roller-coaster campaigning and voting, and of disillusionment with politics that could complicate Macron's reform drive. </s> Italy’s 18th general election since 1948 takes place on Sunday March 4, less than three months after President Sergio Matarella dissolved Parliament on December 28. Today, Italians will head to the polls to cast their ballots for the 945 member Parliament, between 7am and 11pm local time (6am and 10pm GMT). The people will simultaneously cast their votes for the 630 member lower chamber, known as the Camera dei Deuptati, and the 315 member Senate, known as the Camera del Senato. The first exit polls should be published immediately after polls close at 11pm local time but votes are not expected to be fully counted until around 2pm on Monday local time (1pm GMT). Approxmately 50.7 million Italians are eligible to vote in today’s election. Here is the latest on the Italian Election 2018 as polls open. All times in GMT.

10.47am update: Millions of Italians will turn out to vote today Some 50.7 million Italians are eligible to vote and polling booths will remain open until 11 pm (10pm GMT). Local media will publish exit polls immediately afterwards, but it might take many hours before the full result emerges. Opinion polls were banned in the last two weeks of the campaign but surveys suggest Berlusconi’s alliance was in front but would not win a majority. Pollsters say the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement should emerge as the largest single party, while the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) is seen coming third. Official results are expected early on Monday, although the final result might not be clear until late on Monday.

More than 200 polling stations are still closed two hours after the official opening of the vote. Polling stations in the southern Italian city Palermo, Sicily had to ask citizens to return later today to cast their ballots as they were delivered the wrong voting papers. It is understood more than 200,000 voting papers had to be reprinted and delivered to the polling stations involved. The ballot papers were not displaying the name of President of the Senate Pietro Grasso, leader of left-wing coalition Liberi E Uguali. Mr Grasso took to Twitter to voice his disappointment. He wrote: “In the most important day for a democracy these delays and mistakes are unacceptable. READ MORE: More than 200 polling stations CLOSED over wrong voting papers

10am update: Matteo Renzi casts his vote in the Italian election Renzi has voted in his polling station in Florence around 9.20am Italian time, the polling station was full with photographers and journalists so he said to the officials of the polling station "sorry for the annoyance". The current President of Italy has voted in Palermo and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has also cast his vote in Rome.

The vote could bring political gridlock to Italy as no bloc is predicted to win enough votes to form a majority in government. Since the fall of fascism, all electoral laws have been re-written, so no single party can run by itself, instead seats are distributed in a proportional way. Even big parties need alliances to be able to have a majority and form a government, parties start their campaign from the beginning who they will ally with and form coalition lists with them. The centre-right bloc is formed of Forza Italia, Lega and Brothers of Italy and the centre-left bloc is made up of Democratic Party (Partito Democratic PD) and Insieme, Civica Popolare and +Europa. According to Paolo Cossarini, teaching fellow in Politics and International Relations at Loughborough University, he has predicted the vote percentage of the main blocs as follows:
• Party not in pre-electoral alliance - Five Star Movement: 25-28%

8.48am update: Berlusconi’s centre-right bloc likely to win most seats Pollsters have predicted that former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his far-right allies will emerge as the largest bloc in parliament, but fall short of a parliamentary majority. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement looks set the be the biggest single party, establishing itself as a populist party, with the young at its heart. There was momentum for 5-Star in the final days of the campaign, but it is hard to see any party or coalition getting the 40 percent needed to form a government," said Lorenzo Pregliasco, co-founder of YouTrend pollsters. Polling stations close at 11.00 p.m. (2200 GMT), with exit polls due immediately afterwards. The vote is being held under a complex new electoral law which means the final result might not be clear until late Monday.

8.26am update: When do the polls close tonight? The polls will be open from 7am until 11pm today (6am untl 10pm GMT). Italians will vote across the country in the unpredictable contest which has largely been dominated by immigration. The first exit polls should be published immediately after the the polls close and the votes are expected to be counted around 2pm local time on Monday (3pm GMT). All 945 members of the parliament will be elected for the 18th legislature since 1948 - Camera dei Deputati (Chamber of Deputies/lower chamber) and 315 of the Camera del Senato (the Senate/upper house).

6am update: With the polls now open, here is what could happen in the election today What are the latest Italian Election 2018 polls? Under Italian law, publishing opinion polls in the the penultimate two weeks of the electoral campaign is outlawed, but the last batch of polls paints a pretty clear picture of how the vote will go down. Since the start of polling back in January 2018, the M5S has been a clear favourite to be the single biggest party in Parliament, followed by the PD. A February 15 poll by Demopolis indicates a 28 percent vote for the M5S, a 22.5 percent vote for PD and 16.5 for Berlusconi’s FI. Despite bad reviews in Rome, Five Star Movement is the number one single party in the polls, projected to win more than 27 percent of votes. The incumbent ruling party, the Democratic Party, is behind, projected to win less than 23 percent. But Berlusconi is expected to lead the way to victory with his centre-right coalition of three parties — former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the populist La Lega and Brothers of Italy, with neo-fascist roots — polling at 37 percent. However, a 2013 conviction for tax fraud means Berlusconi cannot himself hold public office and so he has put forward Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, as his pick for prime minister. Berlusconi was forced to quit as Italian prime minister in 2011 amidst a sovereign debt crisis and was widely discredited after sex scandals, legal trouble and ill health. </s> WILLEMSTAD – The Supreme Electoral Council (SEC) held its first briefing today at 12 o’clock. According to Pacheco Römer, chairman of the SEC, up until that moment, 21,571 people voted which represents about 20% of the total voters on the island. “This is a good sign because normally this is 12 to 15%,” said Römer during the briefing.

Voting will end at 7 o’clock and the SEC expects the first results to come in at 7:30pm. With all probability, the prison will be the first to announce its results.

This year the SEC kept the number of voters for each polling stations small. None of the polling stations received more than 1500 voters. This means that the vote counting will take less time and the results will be in before the end of the day.

The SEC expects that all the results will be in by 12 o’clock tonight. </s> Egypt will extend voting in the final day of a presidential election by one hour to 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Wednesday, state news agency MENA quoted the election commission as saying.



Polls have been open every day since Monday in a vote which is set to hand President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a landslide win for a second term. </s> Soldiers across the country are getting a first crack at casting ballots in Israel’s election.

Ballot boxes were opened up for troops in the Yahalom combat engineering unit Saturday night, and more polls are opening at bases across the country ahead of the Tuesday vote, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.

While most Israelis will have just 12 hours to cast ballots Tuesday, the polls for soldiers will be open for 72 hours to allow for special circumstances.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Some 640 polling stations will be opened for soldiers across the country, including 130 mobile ballot booths for troops serving in isolated posts or other remote locations, according to the army.

The soldiers are the first to be allowed to vote in Israel, where polling stations for everyone else will open at 8 a.m. Tuesday in most places, closing at 8 p.m.

Though Israel does not allow absentee voting, diplomats, other types of envoys and their families from New Zealand to California were given the first chance to be allowed to vote for the 21st Knesset late last month.

A total of 39 parties are competing in Israel’s first Knesset election since 2015 for the votes of some 6.3 million Israelis eligible to cast ballots.

According to election officials, there will be 10,720 ballot booths set up across the country, including 190 in hospitals and 58 in prison.

Soldiers, foreign envoys, prisoners and hospitalized patients are the only Israelis allowed to cast ballots away from the polling station assigned to their place of residence. </s> The voting booths have opened in France . For the next twelve hours, the French will decide which two presidential candidates will move on to the next round.

The voting started at 8 am Sunday morning. They close at 8 pm in the larger cities and at 7 in smaller places.

Eleven candidates participate in the first round of the presidential election. The two candidates who get the most votes continue on to the final round of presidential elections on May 7th unless in the unlikely event that anyone gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.

A total of 47 million people are entitled to vote in France, including 1.3 million French nationals living elsewhere.

In the last 44 hours preceding the election, it is, under French law, illegal to campaign. The last polls were therefore presented on Friday evening.

Both give the independent centre candidate Emmanuel Macron a lead over the National Front Leader Marine Le Pen, followed by the conservative candidate François Fillon, the liberal candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon. </s> The UK will take to the polls to vote in the European Parliamentary elections on Thursday, May, 23. As Theresa May has not agreed her withdrawal deal with Parliament, the UK has to participate and elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). There are a total of 751 members of European Parliament, who represent more than 512 million people across 28 member states.

Of these 751 MEPs, 73 represent the UK from across 12 regional constituencies. What is a proxy vote? How to get a proxy vote A proxy vote is one which does not take place in person at the polling station, rather someone can cast it for you. If you are unable to vote in person, you can nominate someone you trust to cast your vote for you. Read More: European elections EXPLAINED: What is the d’Hondt system?

In order to apply for a proxy vote, you must be 18 or over on polling day. You must choose someone who is willing and capable to cast a vote on your behalf. There is a proxy vote application form in which you must give the reason for not being able to vote in person. For example, this can be through illness or being abroad on holiday when voting will take place. Read More: Euro Elections: Nigel Farage predicts disaster for Labour at polls

You need to complete all seconds of the form and give your birth date and sign the document - information which is needed to prevent fraud. The form must be returned to your electoral registration office, not the Electoral Commission. The deadline for new proxy voting applications is six working days before the election, which makes the deadline for the European elections Wednesday, May 15 at 5 pm. To change or cancel an existing proxy, postal or postal proxy vote this must have been submitted 11 working days before the vote - so cannot be done for the upcoming European elections. Read More: European elections 2019: Can you vote tactically? How? </s> The Latest on the four-day voting in the European Union to fill the 751-seat European Parliament (all times local):

Polls have opened for the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic, with a centrist party led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis expected to win despite the fraud charges he faces involving European Union funds.

The Czechs on Friday opened their two-day ballot for their country's 21 seats in the 751-seat European Parliament. Voters in the Netherlands and Britain on Thursday kicked off four days of voting across the 28-nation bloc.

Babis' ANO (YES) movement is predicted to win up to 25% of the vote, followed by the moderate euroskeptic Civic Democratic Party and the pro-European Pirate party.

Babis wants his country to remain in the bloc but is calling for EU reforms.

The country's most ardent anti-EU group, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, is predicted to win around 10% of the vote and capture its first seats in the EU legislature.

Protesters are holding rallies in several European Union countries to demand tougher action against global warming, as the 28-nation bloc votes to fill the European Parliament.

Thousands attended a rally Friday in Berlin, where mostly young people waved banners with slogans such as "There is no planet B" or "Plant trees, save the bees, clean the seas."

Many protesters will be too young to vote when Germans cast ballots Sunday in the European Parliament election, but are pressing family and older friends to consider the world's long-term future.

Clara Kirchhoff said the election for the EU's 751-seat assembly was particularly important for tackling climate change on a continental level.

The 17-year-old says "there's no point in Germany doing a lot for the climate and others not pulling their weight

Ireland is going to the polls to kick off the second day of European Union elections which have already caused a stir in the Netherlands.

According to a surprise Ipsos exit forecast late Thursday, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans will become the country's biggest party in the European Parliament.

Britain also voted on Thursday, and in neighboring Ireland polls opened Friday morning. The Czech Republic was set to open two days of voting in the early afternoon.

By Sunday night, all 28 nations will have voted and results will start to come in. The vote is seen as a battle between pro-EU parties and those who seek to wrest power from the EU and back to national capitals.

Pro-European Dutch parties were predicted to win most of the country's seats in the European Parliament, with right-wing populist opponents of the European Union managing to take only four of the nation's 26 seats.

In a surprise forecast, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans on Thursday became the country's biggest party in the 751-seat European Parliament, according to an Ipsos exit poll.

The poll was published by Dutch national broadcaster NOS after polling stations closed Thursday evening in Netherlands. Earlier in the day, Dutch and British voters kicked off the first of four days of voting for the European Parliament in all of the EU's 28 nations.

Official results will only be announced after the last polling station in the EU closes late Sunday.

The Dutch Labor party was forecast to win five seats, while the pro-European center right VVD of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gained one seat to win a total of four seats. Populists also won four seats.
Voting enters the second day.