The elections held in Egypt recently to elect the President has given a thumping majority to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The preliminary results reported the former army general winning with 92 percent of the total vote, according to state media outlets.
The MENA news agency, which is the official media agency of Egypt and also the state owned al-Ahram and Akhbar el-Youm said on Thursday that 23 million out of the 60 million registered voters that equates to 40 per cent of the total voters have turned up to vote during the three days of polling ending on Wednesday.
According to the state-owned al-Ahram, the opposition candidate, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, entered the Presidential race justs hours before the nomination deadline, and got 721,000 votes.
Mousa had in previous time, endorsed Sisi for a second term, and his Ghad party too backed Sisi as a presidential candidate just 10 days before he announced that he is going to contest.
Mousa has continuously rejected allegations that his candidacy was to present a false sense of competition.
A further two million votes were termed to be invalid, as people had written the names of candidates who were not given approval on their ballot papers.
The incumbent president received 96.0 percent of the total vote in his first election in 2014, just a year after Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted as president in a military coup.
Authorities were very much concerned that the turnout would be low, and there were some reports that said that people were offered the equivalent of $3 to cast their ballots.
Trucks were also seen distributing much needed things bags of sugar, cooking oil and rice to people in poor areas.
“The biggest challenge for him [el-Sisi] is the economy,” Mohamed Elmasry, a political .
“Life for the average Egyptian has gotten much difficult because inflation has increased dramatically.”
There are also some security concerns, as Sisi has decided to defeat groups linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt is republican type of democracy with semi-presidential system of government. This type of governance was established after the 2011 revolution and the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The parliament of Egypt is considered to be the oldest legislative chamber in Africa and the Middle East.
The president is elected for maximum of four year-term that can be renewed for only once. On June 24 of year 2012, Mohammed Morsi was announced to have won the Egypt’s Presidential Elections. The results were announced by the election commission of Egypt. He belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative religions party from Egypt. The party was formed by Hassan Al-Banna. After many years of struggle they were successful to remove Hosni Mubarak as a President.
You Can Also Read: Trump To Pull Out US Troops From Syria ‘Very Soon’