Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wins election

Cairo : Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected for a second term with about 92 percent of the vote, preliminary results showed on Thursday, with just over 40 percent of voters casting ballots.

Twenty-five million of the 60 million registered voters, or some 41.5 percent, turned out during the three days of polling that ended Wednesday, state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported. Twenty-three million voted for Sisi.

The Akhbar el-Youm newspaper did not report the full turnout but said Sisi won 21.4 million votes, and his rival Moussa Mostafa Moussa 721,000 votes, without mentioning the number of spoiled ballots.

According to Al-Ahram, in addition to 23 million who cast valid votes, two million spoiled their ballot papers.

Sisi’s sole challenger was the little-known Moussa, himself a supporter of the president, who registered immediately before the close date for applications, saving the election from being a one-horse race.

Moussa conceded his loss on Wednesday night, telling a television station he had hoped for 10 percent of the vote.

“But I know the immense popularity of President Sisi,” he said.

Sisi won his first term in 2014 with 96.9 percent of the vote. Turnout of 47 percent in that year’s election was sharply higher than this year’s 40 percent despite appeals from Prime Minister Sherif Ismail for voters to fulfil their patriotic duty.

Sisi had praised the turn out.

“The vote by masses of Egypt will remain a testament, no doubt, that our nation’s will imposes itself with strength and knows no weakness,” Sisi said on his Twitter account late Wednesday.

At a news conference, election commission official, Mahmud al-Sherif, said there had been no violations of Egypt’s election law.

At a speech before the vote he also called for a high turnout.

“I need you because the journey is not over,” Sisi told a mostly female audience. 

“I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us in the street voting,”  he said.