AKIPRESS.COM - Abdel Fatah al-Sisi was officially confirmed as Egypt’s next president yesterday, after the country’s electoral commission announced that he had won 96.1 per cent of last week’s presidential runoff.

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

But many of Mr Sisi’s critics argued that the figure was 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 per cent turnout Mr Sisi had called for in the days before the election, and indicated that his popularity may not be as universal as his allies claim.