Low Turnout
The Mubarak government initially stated that turnout was high, though numbers varied. Surprisingly, on September 9, the government released results and turnout figures that were low and may have been accurate, as low in some places as 19%.
On September 8, however, an election official and Mubarak's campaign both stated that it was around 30%.
Both on election day and afterwards, election monitoring groups stated that turnout was low, reportedly because ordinary Egyptians thought the outcome a foregone conclusion.
On September 8, anonymous sources stated turnout in Alexandria, the second-largest city in Egypt, was 17%, and turnout in Ismaïlia (a city of about 750,000) was about 24%, with Mubarak taking more than 80% of the vote.
Wael Namara, a spokesman for Ayman Nour of the Tomorrow Party, estimated turnout to be between 10 and 15% in the countryside and from 3 to 5% in the cities.
In previous elections, voter turnout has run at less than 10 percent. Voter turnout in the May 2005 referendum that allowed the presidential election was officially reported as 54%, but judges monitoring the elections said it was more like 3%.
Read more about this topic: Egyptian Presidential Election, 2005, Election Day Events