Sisi to win Egypt's election with '96.2 percent' of the vote

Former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi will gain an overwhelming victory in Egypt’s presidential election, securing 96.2 percent of the vote with most ballots counted, state television reported on Thursday.

The preliminary reports come from ballots from 312 of 352 polling stations, noted the report. 

Sisi’s only electoral rival, leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, received just 3.7 percent of the votes counted, while 4.1 percent were invalid.

Sisi's main political rival, the Muslim Brotherhood, have decimated by a crackdown since Sisi led an overthrow of their government last July, with thousands in prison.

Sisi supporters took to the streets on Wednesday evening waving Egyptian flags, setting off fireworks and honking their car horns.

"It's a victory for stability," said Tahra Khaled, who joined the crowd celebrating in the iconic Tahrir Square, the nerve centre of mass protests that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The army-installed government and Sisi called for a high turnout to endorse the military coup and subsequent designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. Voting due to end on Tuesday was extended by 24 hours, however, in a last-minute decision reportedly made to boost voter numbers.

There has since been conflicting statements about the extension.

According to pro-government newspaper al-Ahram, the Presidential Elections Commission announced the decision to extend voting to assist the “large swathes of people” who had been unable to cast their ballots during the scheduled hours.

After the first two days of voting, preliminary figures released by the election commission on Wednesday showed voter turnout at 37 percent, but other estimates put the figure significantly lower with opposition groups say it was closer to 12 percent.

At the end of the third day of voting, al-Ahram reported an election committee official as saying turnout had "surpassed 25 million (46 percent)" out of almost 54 million registered voters. Aziz el-Kaissouni, an analyst who spoke to MEE, said Sisi would be uncomfortable with a turnout of lower than 52 percent, the level of participation during the 2012 elections that brought Mohamed Morsi to power.

As updated results and voter turnouts were released, commentators were quick to post on social media sites with some highlighting the significant number of spoiled ballots cast:

'It raises questions'

On Wednesday, several Cairo polling stations visited by AFP were practically deserted.

"They didn't get enough votes, so they extended polling into a third day," complained filmmaker Mohamed Ali Hagar, who said he would stay away regardless.

The extension of polling casts doubt on the vote's credibility, experts said.

It "raises more questions about the independence of the electoral commission, the impartiality of the government, and the integrity of Egypt's electoral process," said Democracy International, a US-based observer mission.

That echoed criticism from Sabbahi, who said on Tuesday that the extension raises "questions... about the integrity of the process".

"On a national level, the state has argued that the roadmap is backed by a majority of Egyptian people," said Hisham Hellyar, associate fellow at The Royal United Services Institute, referring to the military-installed authorities' plan to return Egypt to elected rule.

'Death certificate for coup'

The Muslim Brotherhood, which had championed a boycott of the election, hailed the lower turnout.

"The great Egyptian people have given a new slap to the military coup's roadmap and... written the death certificate of the military coup," said its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.

All of the movement's main leaders are now in jail or exile, and Morsi himself is being tried on charges that could carry the death penalty.

Prominent activists behind the uprising that ousted long-time strongman Mubarak in 2011 had also called for a boycott, charging Sisi was a new autocrat in the making.

Sisi's ouster of Morsi on 3 July last year triggered the worst peacetime bloodshed in Egypt's recent history, but the former army chief has vowed to stamp out the violence.

He has said "true democracy" in the Arab world's most populous nation will take a couple of decades.