Sisi elected Egypt president by landslide

Former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has won a landslide victory in the Egyptian presidential election, securing 93.3 percent of the votes cast, judicial sources have said.

His only rival, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, got only 3 percent of the votes. He conceded defeat on Thursday after saying the vote was unfair.

"The election process in itself and the democratic goal in the election was violated and lacked impartiality. We cannot give any credibility and we cannot believe the figures declared until now about the participation of the voters in this election," Sabahi said.

Official election commission figures will likely be released next week but are not expected to change much due to the wide gap in results.

Egypt's presidential election was to be held over two days but was extended by another day amid concerns over low voter turnout. The poor turnout cast doubts about the level of public support for Sisi, who deposed the country's first elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in a coup last year.

Voter turnout this time was 44.4 percent, much lower than the election that brought Morsi to power in June 2012.

Celebrations

Fireworks were set off in capital Cairo when results began to emerge. Sisi's supporters waved Egyptian flags and sounded car horns on the crowded streets of the capital.

About 1,000 people gathered in Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of a popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, and raised hopes of a democracy free of influence from the military.

The decision by the election commission to add another day of voting raised complaints that authorities were manipulating the vote in Sisi's favour.

Sabahi said the extension aimed to "distort" the will of the people. His campaign pulled its representatives from polling stations on Wednesday in protest against what it called a campaign of intimidation and arrests of its campaign workers.

The Muslim Brotherhood - the group which the deposed Morsi belonged to - hailed the low turnout.

The Brotherhood has been designated a "terrorist" organisation by the military-installed interim government.

All of the movement's main leaders are now in jail or exile, and Morsi is being tried on charges that could carry the death penalty.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies