Preliminary reports about Egypt's three-day presidential poll, held 26, 27 and 28 May, show that presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is about to achieve a landslide victory, and as he did in last week's expat vote when he garnered 94.5 per cent of the vote. This clears the simple majority threshold needed for Al-Sisi to avoid a runoff round scheduled 16-17 June. Unofficial reports show that Al-Sisi secured a historic victory, winning around 95 per cent of the vote, getting around 24 million votes —the highest figure registered by a presidential candidate in Egypt in 60 years, or since Egypt was declared a republic in 1953. Unofficial reports also show that voter turnout was not low or modest as earlier projected. Semi-official figures show that between 24 million and 25 million participated in the polls over the three days, representing around 48 per cent of eligible voters. This is a little more than the turnout percentage reached in the first round of Egypt's 2012 presidential polls that stood at around 24 million, or around 44 per cent. Semi-official figures show that Al-Sisi garnered 23.9 million votes, with his rival, Sabahi, receiving only 756,619 votes. Sabahi's votes were so low that they were less than those deemed invalid, which surpassed one million for the first time in Egypt's presidential polls. There are 54 million registered voters in Egypt. Semi-official figures also show the Nile Delta governorates registered the highest turnout and that Al-Sisi got the highest votes in governorates like Menoufiya and Gharbiya. Sabahi surpassed Al-Sisi in just one district: his birthplace town of Baltim in the Nile Delta governorate of Kafr Al-Sheikh. As soon as preliminary figures showed that Al-Sisi was leading by a wide margin, celebrations were organised by his campaign in the late hours of Wednesday, continuing in the early morning in several places in the capital Cairo and other major cities. Reports by election monitors like the Arab League and the European Union (EU) showed only minor irregularities marred the ballot. David Mario, head of the EU supervision mission, said the ballot was conducted in a peaceful way and that turnout reached 46 per cent. “We noticed some minor irregularities, but these were not grave enough to affect the result of the poll,” said Mario. The preliminary figures establish clearly that Al-Sisi will not be forced to face a runoff round. The Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) —the judicial body that took charge of supervising the polls —said it would declare the final results on 3 or 4 June. Al-Sisi is expected to take the presidential oath before the Supreme Constitutional Court as the eighth president of Egypt on 7 June. The current government of Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb is expected to step down, in accordance with the 2014 Constitution.
