Egypt’s 2014 presidential election was marked by the apathy of the vast majority of young people, many of whom refrained from voting during the three-day ballot. In contrast, there was high turnout among an older generation seeking stability and security. That much was clear among the voters’ queues and celebratory scenes that accompanied the ballot in Asyut.

Egypt’s 2014 presidential election was marked by the apathy of the vast majority of young people, many of whom refrained from voting during the three-day ballot. In contrast, there was high turnout among an older generation seeking stability and security. That much was clear among the voters’ queues and celebratory scenes that accompanied the ballot in Asyut.

Hana Aziz Yeni, in her late sixties, came into the voting station at Ismat Afifi School supported by her granddaughter. “I am voting so that our country becomes safe from terrorism – and we salute el-Sisi,” she told Correspondents.

Then two more older women, also helping each other to walk, entered. One was a 73-year-old housewife named Fawzeya Abdullatif. “I am voting to rescue Egypt,” she said. “The only time I felt Egypt is in danger was under the Muslim Brotherhood. Now I feel that el-Sisi will rescue Egypt as he did before. I love him dearly. Whenever I see him on TV, I wish I were his mother. May God bless him!”

Her friend Nawal Khalaf also said, “I came to vote for my country and to save my homeland. I love my country, I love el-Sisi and I love the people of this country.”

But 20-year-old student Mohamed Ahmad, with his two friends at the Asyut Cultural Centre was not so optimistic. “These elections do not represent me,” he said. “The people participating are older, whereas the majority of the youth are convinced that their votes will make no difference. I believe that both candidates are two sides of one coin, where one represents a small segment of people while the other is no more than an image.”

For stability

An old man sitting on a bench in front of the voting station at the Khadeeja Yousef School was also a Sisi supporter. “My name is Ahmad Sayed,” he said. “I am 70 years old and a former railway manager. I came today to vote despite the illness I’ve been suffering from for four months. I fell on the way, but I was determined to get here to vote for the sake of my country against terrorism. The former president [Mohamed Morsi] was a terrorist and he ruled us by force.”

Fatheya Mohamed Hamdan was resting at the Islamic Charity School after walking several hundred metres from her house to vote. The 70-year-old housewife expressed her resentment of what had happened in the past few years, saying, “I am voting in the hope that the situation will get better. Egypt has been exhausted and we want to relieve our homeland.”

Then an old man waving Egypt’s flag at the door of the school rushed over to say, “I call upon all people – especially the youths – to vote for either el-Sisi or Hamdeen for Egypt to remain free and independent! For a strong Egypt! And for the poor people who need to make a living!”

Then 80-year-old carpenter Ali Nimaallah Mousa added, “I am voting because it is a national duty and in the hope of peace and prosperity. I call upon the youths to join us and vote because their attitude is unacceptable.”

Emergence of the old guard

A member of el-Sisi’s campaign, who preferred to remain anonymous, attributed young people’s abstention to the presence of several members of the National Party at the voting stations encouraging people to vote. This, he argued, only gave young people the idea that the revolution is lost and the military state is coming back in new form.

Iman Abbas, sociology professor in Asyut University, believed it was down to differing convictions between generations, with the old desperate for more stability and security. But he also said that political awareness was not being developed properly by schools and universities. He said most young people had become disillusioned after the January 25 revolution in 2011 failed to fundamentally change the country. To them, he argued, the June 30 revolution in 2013 corrected the course of the previous one, but only to bring back the remnants of the old Mubarak regime.

Marginalized youth

Hussam Hassan, coordinator of defeated candidate Hamdeen Sabahi’s campaign in Asyut, commented that the participation of the elderly in the elections was a healthy phenomenon that had arisen in all the elections and referendums since the January 25 revolution. And he blamed the low turnout among young people on unemployment and their marginalization by state institutions.

Ali Sayed, a former coordinator of the opposition April 6^th movement Democratic Front, also believes that young people were not convinced of the candidates, or that their votes could make a difference. He added that they needed to be better educated politically, both by educational institutions and the media.