Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi cruised to a second term as Egyptian president, scooping up more than 97 percent of valid votes in an election where the only other candidate was a little-known supporter.
Mousa Mostafa Mousa's last-minute bid was widely considered a token gesture to avoid a one-man race seven years after the uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule. Of some 60 million registered voters, nearly 25 million, or 41 percent, cast ballots compared to 47 percent in the 2014 election that cemented the ex-general in office, according to final results announced by the National Election Authority on Monday.
El-Sissi secured roughly the same proportion of votes as at the height of his popularity in 2014, a year after he led the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi following mass protests. After El-Sissi's re-election was confirmed, state TV aired patriotic music and images of people celebrating in the street.
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