CAIRO, Dec  18, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has
won a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in the Arab world's most
populous country, the national election authority said Monday.

The outcome of the December 10-12 poll was widely expected after the former
army chief with a fondness for infrastructure mega-projects campaigned against
a small field of relative unknowns.

It secures 69-year-old Sisi his third and, according to the Egyptian
constitution, final term in office, starting in April and set to run for six
years.
His victory comes despite a painful economic crisis, marked by a currency
plunge and runaway household prices, and heightened regional tensions sparked
by the Israel-Hamas war in neighbouring Gaza.

Annual inflation is running at 36.4 percent, sending up prices of some food
staples by the week and hurting household budgets in the country of nearly 106
million.

Even before the current economic crisis, about two thirds of Egypt's
population were living on or below the poverty line.

A decade-long crackdown on dissent had eliminated any serious competition
for Sisi, Egypt's fifth president to emerge from within the ranks of the
military since 1952.

It was the third time in a decade Sisi wins a landslide victory, albeit
with his smallest margin. In both 2014 and 2018, Sisi won over 96 percent of
the vote.

- Retired field marshall -

The runner-up Hazem Omar, who leads the Republican People's Party, received
4.5 percent of the vote.

Next came Farid Zahran, leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, and
Abdel-Sanad Yamama from the Wafd, a century-old but relatively marginal party.
The election authority said turnout was "unprecedented" at 66.8 percent of
67 million registered voters. This was up from 41 percent in 2018 and 47
percent in 2014.

In much of Cairo, however, the only sign Egypt was holding an election were
the ubiquitous campaign posters for Sisi, while banners for other candidates
were few and far between.

Several voters told AFP they "did not know the other candidates", while
much of the country ignored the polls entirely.

Sisi, a retired army field marshall, was first voted in as president after
leading the overthrow of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

He later extended the presidential mandate from four to six years and
amended the constitution to raise the limit on consecutive terms from two to
three years.

His administration has overseen the imprisonment of tens of thousands of
political opponents as the space for dissent has been progressively curtailed.

The all-but-decimated opposition had built some momentum this year ahead of
the election, before media and public attention were diverted by the Gaza war.

For a brief while, some expected the election to include two main
opposition figures who -- despite having no real hope of winning -- were
intended to highlight dissident voices.

Today, one is in prison and the other is awaiting trial.

- Fresh devaluation -

When he was first elected, the president's popularity was dubbed
"Sisimania" and adoring supporters put his image on everything from baked goods
to key chains.

The enthusiasm has ebbed from those highs but Sisi is not without his
supporters.

From 2016 onward, he undertook a host of economic reforms in pursuit of
loans from the International Monetary Fund that have required severe austerity
measures and multiple currency devaluations.

Those policies, coupled with expensive mega projects -- including a $58
billion-dollar new capital city in the desert east of Cairo -- have more than
tripled Egypt's debt.

Virtually all imports to Egypt are paid for in dollars, and a severe
foreign currency shortage has caused a parallel market to surge and pushed up
consumer prices.

Nearly a decade after Sisi first promised Egyptians security and
prosperity, the economy is in freefall.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Sisi on his
"convincing victory", according to the Kremlin.

The results are "a clear indication of the widespread recognition of your
merits in addressing the pressing socio-economic and foreign policy challenges
facing Egypt," Putin said in a message to Sisi.

The election was initially expected in the spring of 2024. But experts have
said Sisi wanted to secure a third term before enacting another widely
anticipated currency devaluation that is expected to fuel public discontent.