Polls closed after a three-day presidential election that incumbent Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is set to easily win, but questions remained whether enough voters showed up to lend it legitimacy.

Polling stations remained quiet throughout Wednesday with only a few people trickling in to periodically cast their ballots. Sisi had urged high voter participation among the nearly 60 million eligible voters to affirm his legitimacy after all credible opponents dropped out in January citing intimidation by authorities after his main challenger was jailed.

A prosecutor who oversaw one station in a Cairo suburb said voter turnout on the last day had been slightly lower than the first two, Lasheen Ibrahim, head of the national election commission, urged Egyptians on state television to come out and vote. And he has already declared the vote was free and fair

The election that kicked off on Monday has been largely viewed as a referendum on Sisi's performance. He ran against one of his supporters, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who had endorsed him for a second term.