Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has won a third term with 89.6 per cent 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 fighting in neighbouring Gaza. Annual inflation is running at 36.4pc, sending up prices of some food staples by the week and hurting household budgets in the country of nearly 106 million.—AFP
