Abdel Fattah al-Sisi swept on Monday to a third term as Egypt’s President in an election where he faced no serious challengers, calling the vote a rejection of the “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza.
The election, in which he took 89.6% of the vote according to the National Election Authority, was held as Egypt struggles with a slow-burning economic crisis and tries to manage the risk of spillover from the war adjacent to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Many people in the Arab world’s most populous country expressed indifference about the Dec. 10-12 election, saying the result was a foregone conclusion.
The State and tightly controlled domestic media pushed hard to boost turnout, which the election authority said had reached 66.8% – well above the 41% recorded at the last presidential election in 2018.
Some voters said the conflict had encouraged them to vote for Sisi, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region – an argument that has also proved effective with Gulf and Western allies providing financial support to his government.
“Egyptians lined up to vote not just to choose their president for the next term, but to express their rejection of this inhumane war to the entire world,” Sisi said in a speech soon after results were announced.
He described the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as Egypt’s primary challenge.
Israel’s heavy bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip, after a Hamas incursion into Israel, has flattened much of the enclave and left most of its people homeless. Egypt has said it will not allow any cross-border exodus of Gazans.
@Reuters