Sisi won 96.1% of vote in Egypt presidential election, say officials

Abdel Fatah al-Sisi was officially confirmed as Egypt's next president on Tuesday evening, after the country's electoral commission announced that he had won 96.1% of last week's presidential runoff.

Officials claimed that just under 47.5% of Egypt's 53 million eligible voters participated – a respectable turnout that, if true, would compare favourably with the 52% who voted in Egypt's 2012 presidential election.

But many of Sisi's critics argued that the figure had been inflated as many polling stations had appeared empty throughout last week's poll, despite non-voters being threatened with a large fine, the introduction of a last-minute public holiday, and the extension of voting to a third day.

Whatever the figure's accuracy, it was substantially lower than the 80% turnout Sisi had called for in the days before the election, and indicated that Sisi's popularity may not be as universal as his allies claim.