A landslide victory for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Egyptian presidential election

May 29, 2014   

No surprises: Egypt's former defense minister, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has won a landslide victory in Egypt's presidential election, according to the tally of 2,000 polling stations across the country, representing about a quarter of the votes. A statement from Sisi's campaign headquarters said he had garnered 97.71% of the votes. According to this report, his only rival, Hameddine Sabahi, received only 2.91% of the votes, while 3.71% of the votes were disqualified. More moderate reports said that al-Sisi won "only" 80% of the votes. According to reports, a total of 26,192,000 Egyptians voted in the elections, which is only 48% of those eligible to vote - less than half. This is a relatively low turnout, as the Muslim Brotherhood movement boycotted the elections, while many of the country's citizens felt indifferent to the electoral process. This was the 11th time they had been called to the polls in the last four years, to vote for parliament, a referendum or in the presidential election. The polls closed after 3 days of voting. The polls were supposed to close on Tuesday evening, but another day of voting was decided due to low voter turnout. Official results are expected to be published towards the end of the week, but no surprises are expected: Sisi will be the one to lead Egypt. After the results are published, he is expected to address the nation and give a speech. Sisi managed to unite behind him the Nasserist left in Egypt as well as the Coptic Christians, who were persecuted during the Muslim Brotherhood's rule.