Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, after the late March election in which his only challenger was a supporter of his administration.
Egypt’s Election Commission on Monday, April 2, 2018, declared Sisi re-elected with 97.08% of valid votes on a 41.5% turnout, a slight increase in the number of votes in his favour despite a dip in turnout from the previous election in 2014.
Moussa Moustafa Moussa, Sisi's only challenger whose party previously endorsed Sisi, garnered under 3% of valid votes. Spoiled ballots accounted for 7.27% of the overall result, after some citizens bowed to pressure to show up to the polls but did not vote.
Columnist: Sisi said he had wanted more candidates to run and that he had had nothing to do with the opposition withdrawals.
The election commission said the vote was free and fair as it gave the results in a televised announcement on Monday.
The lower turnout is a potential setback for Sisi, who suggested before the vote that he saw it as a referendum on his presidency rather than a genuine contest. Turnout in the 2014 vote that won him his first term was 47 percent.
State media had portrayed failure to vote as a betrayal of Egypt. Some voters said they were offered incentives to cast their ballots including money and food, local and international media reported, but did not say who had made the offers.
Officials said that if any such incidents took place they were not state-sponsored and extremely limited.
Â