Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has been re-elected for a second term after an election campaign in which five of his potential challengers were prevented from getting on the ballot.
Preliminary results showed that Sisi won about 92% of the vote, with turnout at around 41.5%.
State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported that twenty-five million of the 60 million registered voters turned out during the three days of polling that ended on Wednesday. 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.
According to the Al-Ahram newspaper, in addition to 23 million who cast valid votes, 2 million spoiled their ballot papers.
Sisi’s sole challenger was Mousa Mostafa Mousa, who had earlier emphasized that he “was not here to challenge the president” and who entered the race at the last minute after five other potential challengers were all blocked from getting on the ballot.
Mousa conceded his loss on Wednesday night. Other, more heavyweight would-be challengers were all sidelined, detained or pulled out.
