Egyptian officials were counting votes on Thursday after an election set to hand President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a second term following a crackdown on dissent that removed serious challengers.
As ballots are tallied for official results due on April 2, the focus will be on final turnout since Sisi faced no credible opposition. Critics say the contest recalled the kind of vote that kept Arab autocrats in power for decades before the 2011 Arab Spring.
The former military commander overthrew Islamist Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first freely-elected president, during turmoil in 2013 that followed a popular uprising two years earlier.
Mr. Sisi was first elected in 2014 with 97 % of the vote, but with a modest turnout of about 47 %.
Authorities have been desperate to ensure a higher turnout this time around as Mr. Sisi sees attendance at polls as a referendum on his popularity and seeks a strong mandate to fight militants and push through tough economic reforms.
Preliminary results showed Mr. Sisi is leading with 21.5 million votes, state-owned newspaper Akhbar el-Youm reported, a tally that would give him about a third of eligible voters.
State-run media trumpeted Mr. Sisi's victory early on Thursday, predicting a “big turnout”, and radio programmes said that most of the voters were from Egypt's fast-growing youth.
“The people have chosen their President”, the front page of state-run daily al-Ahram said.
Early indications from sources monitoring the vote, however, suggested turnout could be lower than in the 2014 election.
On the first two days of voting, turnout was about 21 %, two sources monitoring the election said, and a Western diplomat said that late on Tuesday it was between 15 and 20 %.
The two sources said late on Wednesday the turnout figure could be less than 40 %.
Mr. Sisi was expected to win more than 90 % of the vote, while it appeared that more people spoiled their ballots than voted for Mr. Sisi's sole challenger Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who has widely been dismissed as a dummy candidate.
“All preliminary reports suggest that turnout is down compared to 2014 despite all the efforts that have been made to raise the numbers,” Timothy Kaldas, non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said.
Voters paid, Opposition crushed
“But it's not clear what consequence the turnout will really have on a government that doesn't appear to believe the people should have a say in who rules them to begin with,” he said.
Egyptian authorities and media outlets have tried to garner as many votes as possible, telling voters it is their duty, and portraying a failure to vote as betrayal of their country.
Other tactics have also been deployed, with some voters saying they were paid and given other incentives to cast their ballots.
All serious opposition dropped out the election race earlier this year citing intimidation after the main challenger, another former military chief, was arrested. Egypt's election commission said the vote would be free and fair, and Sisi said he wished more candidates had run.
Mr. Sisi's presidency has returned the military to power after turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.
