Some Assiut voters boycott elections to grab media attention

Some are boycotting the elections to protest shortages of bread and cooking gas, and a few polling violations were observed, Ahram Online's field correspondent reports

Many voters in two Assiut villages have decided to boycott the presidential elections to protest the shortage of bread and butane gas cylinders, Ahram Online's local correspondents reported on Monday.
Desperate to get officials to solve their chronic problem and provide these necessities, many residents of the villages of Bani Edriss and El-Monshaa El-Soghra decided to boycott the elections in the hope of getting some media attention for their demands.
Assiut, one of the larger governorates in Upper Egypt, boasts some 2.8 million voters, but apparently saw a lower turnout on the first day of Egypt's historic presidential elections than during the recent parliamentary elections.
The names of Abul-Fotouh, Mohamed Mursi, Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabbahi were often mentioned as the choices of voters standing in polling lines in Assiut city.
However, Assiut's extensive Coptic population seemed to be more inclined towards voting for the Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.
Official Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi has been spotted handing out cooking oil and bags of sugar to voters in the district of West Assiut, in a clear violation of electoral law.
There were also some minor fights between supporters of Abul-Fotouh and Mursi over promotional activities carried out outside polling stations.
The April 6 Youth Movement, however, was distributing flyers calling on voters not to vote for the feloul, or the remnants of the former regime, in reference to Shafiq and Amr Moussa, who served as foreign minister for 10 years under Mubarak.
The campaigns of Shafiq and Mursi were also seen bussing voters to the polls. Shafiq's campaign includes many former members of Mubarak's now-defunct National Democratic Party.