Less than 6 percent of expatriates eligible to vote have cast their ballots in the first three days of the presidential election, which started Friday for Egyptians abroad, Egypt Ambassador to the US Sameh Shoukry said. Shoukry told state-run news agency MENA's Washington correspondent that he hopes votes sent by regular mail will begin to arrive starting Monday. Voter turnout is still low compared to parliamentary elections, in which 22,000 Egyptian expats in the US voted, Shoukry said. The number of registered Egyptian voters in the US is 29,000, an increase of 7,000 compared to the parliamentary elections. Egyptians in the US may vote by going to the embassy in Washington or any of Egypt's four consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Alternatively, voters may send their ballots by mail. Voting is scheduled to end on Thursday 17 May. In case of a runoff, voters will cast their votes between 3 and 9 June. Egyptians in Egypt will vote on 23 and 24 May in the first post-Mubarak presidential election. Expats started voting on Friday and will continue until 17 May. Of an estimated 8 million Egyptians living abroad, 4 million are eligible to vote. About 500,000 have registered to vote in 166 countries. The largest bloc of registered expat voters is in Saudi Arabia, with 261,924 voters, followed by Kuwait, with 119,234; the United Arab Emirates, with 61,427; Qatar, with 32,836; the US, with 27,318; and Canada, with 11,892.
