Abdel Fattah al-Sisi easily won a third term as president of Egypt in a contest in which he had no formidable opponents.
He declared the outcome a rejection of the “inhumane war” being waged on Gaza, his neighbour.
He received 89.6% of the vote in the election, which was conducted while Egypt attempts to control the possibility of a spillover from the conflict near its Sinai Peninsula and battles a lingering economic crisis.
A number of voters stated that the escalation of hostilities in Gaza had prompted them to cast their ballots for Sisi. Sisi has consistently positioned himself as the guardian of stability in an unstable country, a claim that has been persuasive as seen by the financial backing his administration receives from Western and Gulf friends.
In a speech shortly after the results were declared, Sisi stated, “Egyptians lined up to vote not just to choose their president for the next term, but to express their rejection of this inhumane war to the entire world.”
He described the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules Gaza, as Egypt’s main problem and said that Egypt had to do all in its power to put an end to it.
