Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef mocked the reportedly low turnout on the first day of Egypt's parliamentary elections and criticized how Egyptian media has handled the event on Twitter Sunday.
After the first day of Egypt's parliamentary elections wrapped up with a reportedly trouble-free but low turnout at the polling stations, Youssef took to Twitter to make fun of the situation.
He started by sarcastically replying to news of one person dying on the first day of the elections as he said: "Cause of death: the emptiness or maybe excessive thinness. That works too."
He continued his sarcastic monologue by saying: "The reason for the low turnout at the polling stations is a genius strategy for us to prove to the world that we are a country that's not crowded and that we have solved the traffic and pollution problems. #tourism_first."
Youssef then went on to criticize the decision of head of the High Elections Committee and President of the Cairo Court of Appeal to fine eligible Egyptians who choose to abstain from voting without valid justification.
"For the fourth year in a row, the 'bluffing' is happening by imposing a fine of 500 LE on those who abstain from voting. That's the only source of income left," wrote Youssef.
Finally, the satirist criticized how Egyptian TV hosts have covered the elections saying: "The anchors are, as usual, patronizing the people and yelling at them because they didn't go, it is as if they have something on them?"
Youssef started trending on Twitter in Egypt following his comments, which is not the first time the satirist has received attention online for sarcastically commenting on or criticizing current events and happenings in Egypt on Twitter.
In late September, he made headlines for mocking Egypt's education minister over his widely publicized spelling mistakes by mimicking the mistakes in his tweets.