Sisi wins second term with landslide 97% votes

cairo — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has secured a second term with 97 per cent of votes, according to official results announced on Monday.

The head of the election authority Lasheen Ibrahim said at a press conference that turnout was 41.05 per cent of the almost 60 million registered voters.

He said 92.73 per cent of the votes were valid from the roughly 24 million cast, while almost two million ballots were spoiled.

Sisi’s sole rival and an erstwhile ardent supporter, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, won 2.92 per cent of the valid votes, Ibrahim said.

“These are momentous moments for this nation ...which will be written in letters of light, under the title: battle for the love of Egypt,” the head of the election authority said.

“The entire world heard your chants for the love of Egypt,” he said.

Sisi, who as army chief ousted president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, won his first term in 2014 with 96.9 per cent of valid votes. “The vote by masses of Egypt will remain a testament, no doubt, that our nation’s will impose itself with strength and knows no weakness,” the Egyptian president said on his Twitter account late on Wednesday.

People who boycotted the election and cannot show a good reason for missing the vote could face a fine of up to 500 Egyptian pounds (22 euros), the electoral commission has warned.

In an interview days ahead of the vote, Sisi said he wished there were more candidates, denying any role in sidelining his rivals. He also sought to drive up voter turnout in a speech in the run-up to ballot as he urged Egyptians to back his bid for another four years in office.

“I need you because the journey is not over,” Sisi told a mostly female audience.

“I need every lady and mother and sister, please, I need the entire world to see us” voting.

Sisi gave the armed forces and police a three-month deadline in

The vote by masses of Egypt will remain a testament, no doubt, that our nation’s will impose itself with strength and knows no weakness Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Egyptian President

November to wipe out the Daesh militant group in its Sinai Peninsula stronghold.

The deadline has since been extended, and on February 9 the armed forces launched their most comprehensive campaign yet to end the five-year-old insurgency.

But attacks by the militants have continued.

The Egyptian president has embarked on tough economic reforms that have been welcomed by foreign investors but also drew some oppostion at home even his popularity remains high.—