CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is headed towards a landslide victory in Egypt’s presidential elections on Monday securing a third term as leader of the Middle East’s most populous nation, Al Jazeera reported. Following the counting of votes between December 10 and 12, the National Elections Authority of Egypt said that Sisi won 89.6 percent of the votes.
Turnout reached an “unprecedented” 66.8 percent of voters, said authority head Hazem Badawy. Furthermore, over 39 million Egyptians cast their ballots for Sisi, a former army chief who has ruled the most populous Arab country for a decade, according to Al Jazeera. Amid Egypt dealing with several crises, including the Israel-Hamas war in neighboring Gaza and the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, Sisi won even though the result was in little doubt.
Reportedly, despite Egypt’s challenges, a decade-long crackdown on dissent has eliminated any serious opposition to Sisi, the fifth president to emerge from within the ranks of the military since 1952, reported Al Jazeera. Sisi was running against three other candidates, none of whom were high-profile, according to Al Jazeera.
However, he ended his run complaining that his campaign had been impeded and dozens of his supporters had been arrested. Furthermore, runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People’s Party, received 4.5 percent of the vote. The next came Farid Zahran, leader of the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party, according to Al Jazeera.
Sisi is now set to serve his third–and, according to the constitution, final–term in office, which will begin in April. However, in both previous elections, Sisi won with 97 percent of the vote. Sisi extended the presidential mandate from four to six years and amended the constitution to raise the limit on consecutive terms in office from two to three, Al Jazeera reported.
Notably, under Sisi’s rule, Egypt has jailed thousands of political prisoners, and while a presidential pardons committee has freed about 1,000 in one year, rights groups said that three to four times, many were arrested over the same period.