Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi re-elected for second term with nearly 92% of votes

Cairo: Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected for a second term with a sweeping majority, garnering nearly 92 percent of the total votes, media reports said. According to early estimates, more than 23 million Egyptians voted for the 63-year-old Field Marshal in the three-day presidential election. [caption id=“attachment_3777203” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Reuters[/caption] His sole challenger, the little-known centrist politician and al Ghad party chief Moussa Mostafa Moussa, is estimated to have obtained 3 percent of the vote. Vote counting started after polling stations closed Wednesday. According to non-official figures, 21,088,295 people voted for Sisi in polling stations across Egypt. The official results will be announced on 2 April. Sisi posted photos of voters participating in the polls and praised them on Facebook for the huge turnout late Wednesday. “The voice of the masses of Egyptians will remain a witness - no doubt - that the will of our nation is prevailing with a force that does not know weakness,” Sisi said.  “The scenes of the Egyptians outside the polling stations will remain a matter of honour and pride for me and hard evidence of the greatness of our nation,” he added. According to the official results of the vote count released by the general election committee in Aswan governorate, Sisi received 254,940 votes against Moussa’s 9,563 votes. In Sidi Gaber in Alexandria governorate, Sisi won 83,631 votes against 2,474 votes for his rival. The number of eligible voters who cast their ballots stood at 95,486, with 86,112 valid votes registered, it said. Alexandria governorate has more than 3.8 million eligible voters. In the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbiya, Sisi obtained 90 per cent of votes, with a turnout of more than 50 per cent, state news agency MENA reported, citing preliminary results. About 60 million people were eligible to vote in the election which was held in 13,687 polling stations across the country and under the supervision of 18,678 judges from various judicial bodies and authorities. Police and army personnel maintained a tight vigil near the polling stations to ensure that no untoward incident happens. Sisi overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. He was elected for a four-year presidential term in 2014.