El-Sissi wins Egypt's presidential election with 89.6% of the vote and secures third term in office

abcnews.go.com:

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has won reelection to a third, six-year term in office

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who has ruled with an unquestioned grip for the past nine years, won reelection to a third, six-year term in office, election authorities announced Monday. He ran against three virtually unknown opponents.

El-Sissi recorded a landslide victory, securing 89.6% of the vote, the National Election Authority said. Turnout was 66.8% of more than 67 million registered voters.

“The voting percentage is the highest in the history of Egypt," declared Hazem Badawy, the election commission chief, who announced the official results in a televised news conference.

The vote was overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Egypt’s eastern border, which has threatened to expand into wider regional turmoil.

Egyptians voted «to express their rejection to this inhumane war,” el-Sissi said during a televised speech that followed the results announcement. Since the outbreak of the war, Cairo has accused Israel of trying to push Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt and quash Palestinian demands for statehood.

The North African country is also in the midst of an economic crisis, with monthly inflation surging above 30%. Over the past 22 months, the Egyptian pound has lost 50% of its value against the dollar, with one third of the country's 105 million people already living in poverty, according to official figures.

A key Western ally in the region, el-Sissi has faced international criticism over Egypt’s human rights record and harsh crackdown on dissent. A career army officer and defense minister at the time, he led the 2013 military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed