260,000 expatriates vote in Egypt election

CAIRO, June 9 (UPI) -- The Egyptian Foreign Ministry calculates 260,000 expatriates have voted in the second round of the presidential election, a ministry spokesman said.

Spokesman Amr Roshdy said the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had the highest the number of votes, with more than 63,000; followed by Kuwait with 55,000; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 48,000; Doha, 15,100; Dubai, 13,500; Abu Dhabi, 13,300; and Muscat, 4,450, the Middle East News Agency reported Saturday.

Outside of Arab states, Roshdy said, the Egyptian Consulate in New York had the highest number of votes, about 4,000; followed by Montreal and Milan, Italy, with almost 3,300 votes each.

Roshdy said voting in embassies and consulates in more than 161 countries is scheduled to close at 8 p.m. Saturday but could be extended depending on last-minute turnout, Ahram Online reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi faces Ahmed Shafiq, ousted President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, in the runoff election.

Roshdy said attempts to double vote had been discovered. At the Egyptian Consulate in Los Angeles, 10 voters tried to vote in person and by mail, and at the Abu Dhabi embassy, three voters tried to vote twice by mail. The double votes were excluded, he said.