Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi secured a third term after winning 89.6% of the votes in a contest overshadowed by the war in Gaza and a domestic economic crisis, the National Elections Authority said Monday.
El-Sissi was running against three other candidates, none of whom were high profile. The most prominent potential candidate ended his run complaining that his campaign had been impeded and dozens of his supporters arrested.
Turnout reached an "unprecedented" 66.8% of voters, said authority head Hazem Badawy.
Over 39 million had cast their ballots for el-Sissi, a former army chief who has ruled the most populous Arab country for a decade.
The president was up against three relative unknowns in the vote held between Dec. 10 and Dec. 12.
Runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People's Party, received 4.5% of the votes.
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.
El-Sissi is now set to serve his third – and, according to the constitution, final – six-year term in office, starting in April.
His win comes as no surprise, despite Egypt being gripped by its worst-ever economic crisis and high tensions around Israel's war in neighboring Gaza.
The currency has plunged and annual inflation is running at 36.4%, sending up prices of some food staples by the week, hurting household budgets.
Even before the current economic crisis, about two-thirds of Egypt's population of nearly 106 million were living on or below the poverty line.
