CAIRO — Egypt's interim president urged Egyptians on Sunday to come out and vote in this week's presidential election, saying the vote will shape the nation's future. In a televised address, Adly Mansour also sought to assure Egyptians that state institutions, including his office, would not interfere in the Monday and Tuesday voting. “Let us all come out tomorrow and the day after to express our free choice. Choosing, without being guided or dictated to, the person we trust to have the ability to build and run the nation,” Mansour said. Former military chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi is the heavy favorite to win the election. His only rival is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who placed a strong third in the last general election held in 2012. El-Sissi led the military takeover that ousted last July the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, replacing him with Mansour, a career judge. “The state's institutions, with the presidency at their heart, stand at an equal distance from the two presidential candidates. They have not and will not direct any citizen to a specific choice. Instead, we are all concerned with security and a wide popular participation,” Mansour said in the recorded five-minute address. El-Sissi has since last July enjoyed the support of the media, both state-owned and private, as he rode a wave of nationalist fervor that expressed adulation for the military as the nation's most reliable and strongest institution. — AP
