A total of 106 polling stations opened worldwide on Friday, according to Ahmed Bendari, the Executive Director of the National Elections Authority (NEA).

According to the NEA, 137 embassies and consulates across 121 countries will receive voters from 9am to 9pm on December 1-3.

In an atmosphere of enthusiasm, Egyptians in Saudi Arabia went to the Embassy of Egypt in Riyadh to cast their ballots. 

Saudi Arabia hosts the largest Egyptian population abroad, estimated at 3 million, with two available polling stations in Riyadh and Jeddah.

Many Egyptians also cast votes at the Embassy of Egypt in Abu Dhabi. 

The Ministry of Emigration’s Facebook page also shared photos of hundreds of Egyptian expats casting votes in various European and Arab countries.

An Egyptian citizen casts his vote in the Embassy of Egypt in South Korea.

Egyptian citizens cast their vote in the Embassy of Egypt in Denmark.

An Egyptian citizen casts her vote at the Embassy of Egypt in Qatar.

According to data documented by the "Dialogue Forum for Development and Human Rights," the number of voters abroad in the 2012 presidential elections was around 314,000. It increased slightly in 2014 to over 318,000 before it declined in the 2018 elections to just over 157,000 votes.

The candidates running for the presidency include incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who is running for a third term in office and whose electoral symbol is a star; Farid Zahran, the leftist opposition Social Democratic Party candidate with the sun as his electoral symbol; Abdel-Sanad Yamama, candidate of the Wafd party who has chosen the palm tree as his electoral symbol; and Hazem Omar, the Republican People’s Party candidate, with the ladder as his electoral symbol.