Egypt election: Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi wins vote marred by low voter turnout

Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi has all but won Egypt's presidential election, as his campaign projects him winning over 90 per cent of the total vote in an election marred by low voter turnout.

El-Sissi's campaign told Reuters the former army chief won 93.4 per cent of the total vote on Wednesday. His rival Hamdeen Sabahi took only 2.9 per cent of the vote, l-Sisi's team said.

The results come after Egypt extended the election into Wednesday, as el-Sissi hoped more Egyptians would vote in an election many had long ago concluded he would win.

Estimates reported by pro-el-Sissi media put turnout since Monday between 38 and 44 per cent, well below the nearly 52 per cent in the 2012 election won by Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president el-Sissi ousted last summer.

El-Sissi had said in television interviews this week that he wanted a voter turnout of more than 80 per cent to "show the world" the extent of his popularity, despite the fact that he’s been considered certain to win — perhaps by a landslide — for months.

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Turnout is key because he is looking to prove to critics at home and abroad that his ouster of Morsi and his subsequent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists reflected the will of the people.

Polls closed late Wednesday and counting began immediately, election officials said.

Critics say the lack of enthusiasm at the polls is in part due to deep apathy among even el-Sissi supporters. Others say it shows discontent with el-Sissi, not just among his Islamist foes but also among a broader section of the public that says he has no concrete plans for Egypt's woes and fears he will return Egypt to the autocratic ways of Hosni Mubarak.

The tepid polling is particularly embarrassing because the government and media have been whipping up adulation for el-Sissi over the past 10 months, depicting him as a warrior against terrorism and the only person able to tackle Egypt's economic problems, high unemployment, inflation and instability.

El-Sisi 's supporters in the Egyptian media have been in a panic the past two days. Political talk show hosts and newscasters have urged people to vote, warning that otherwise the Brotherhood will be encouraged to step up its challenge to the new government.

Prominent TV talk show host Amr Adeeb angrily said that by not voting, Egyptians might as well "go directly to the prison and return Mohammed Morsi to power."

"Tell him `Your excellency, President Mohammed Morsi, please come out and rule us,"' he said.

Observers, opposition question vote’s extension

The abrupt decision by the election commission to add another day of voting raised complaints that authorities were tipping the playing field in el-Sissi's favour.

U.S.-based Democracy International, which has been observing the vote, said the extension "raises more questions about the independence of the election commission, the impartiality of the government, and the integrity of Egypt's electoral process."

It said its observer teams outside of Cairo had ended their mission as scheduled on Tuesday, meaning they were not observing polls Wednesday. Some other international monitoring teams also left the country, since they had only planned for two days of voting, though EU monitors stayed on.

The campaign of el-Sissi's sole opponent in the race, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, protested the extension, saying it aimed to "distort" the will of the people. It also pulled its representatives from polling stations Wednesday in protest against what it called a campaign of intimidation and arrests of its campaign workers.

Many youth boycott vote

Only a handful of voters or none at all were at polling centres in multiple districts toured by Associated Press reporters Wednesday. At some, music played and kids painted Egyptian flags or el-Sissi's name on their faces as the occasional voter drifted in. TV images beamed from more than a dozen locations across Egypt showed similar scenes.

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"People are lazy, depressed or frustrated. They knew what the result will be even before the vote," said Amani Fikry, a manager in a privately owned company. "They are exhausted from three years of constant troubles."

In Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district, loudspeakers played patriotic songs at an empty polling centre. Two el-Sissi backers scribbled words of support on posters of the candidate that had been defaced with insulting graffiti.

"Sissi doesn't need a program," said one, Mohammed Hussein. "We just want security."

Morsi's Brotherhood supporters and other Islamists boycotted the vote and scattered protests by Morsi supporters were quickly dispersed by security forces.

In Fayoum, south of Cairo, riot police fired tear gas after protesters hurled stones and firecrackers while marching and chanting slogans against elections.

Along with Islamists, some of the youths who took part in the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak are either staying away from the polls or supporting Sabahi.

Tarek Shebli, a judge on the election commission, told the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that 21 million of the 54 million registered voters had cast ballots — a 38 per cent turnout.