Egyptians vote on last day of presidential poll

Egyptians started to cast their votes from 9 a.m. Tuesday, the final day of the two-day presidential election being held after the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.

Ex-military chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who led Morsi's overthrow, is poised to score an easy win over his sole rival in the race, leftist leader Hamdeen Sabahy, who came third in the 2012 presidential election.

The former military chief won 94.5 percent of the votes cast by over 300,000 overseas Egyptians in 124 countries last week.

The government officially declared Tuesday as a public day off to enable people vote in the elections, the second step of the military-outlined post-Morsi roadmap after the newly-approved constitution, Xinhua reported.

Although interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said Monday that the government might extend the two-day polling for a third day, the Election Commission said it was the only body to decide.

About 54 million Egyptians are eligible to cast their votes in about 14,000 polling stations in the country's 27 provinces.