Former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi was sweeping Egypt’s presidential poll with 96.8 per cent of the vote in partial unofficial results.
Counting got under way immediately after polls closed, and al-Hayat television reported figures from the first 3,000 counting centres putting Mr. al-Sissi on 7,367,632 votes.
Mr. El-Sissi’s only opponent, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy, had 242,117 votes -- 3.2 per cent of the valid vote and less than the 317,167 spoilt ballots.
Official results are not expected until June 5.
Supporters of Mr. El-Sissi, the former army chief who has been lionized in the Egyptian media since he ousted President Mohammed Morsy in July, celebrated in the streets of Cairo and other cities.
Turnout reportedly remained low on the third day of the elections, after the election commission decided to extend balloting beyond the planned two days.
In the last half hour before polls closed, occasional voters were still trickling into polling stations in Cairo’s working-class Sayyida Zeinab area, as Mr. al-Sissi supporters rallied to celebrate his expected win and huge amplifiers blared pro-army songs.
A commission official told semi-official newspaper al-Ahram that more than 40 per cent of the electorate had voted by late afternoon Wednesday -- well below the 52 per cent who voted in the 2012 elections that brought Morsi to power.
Egypt’s interim authorities were anxious for high turnout to lend legitimacy for Mr. al-Sissi at home and abroad, 10 months after he deposed Mr. Morsy in the wake of mass protests.
Mr. Morsy’s Muslim Brotherhood, which called for a boycott of the polls, has claimed the reported low turnout as a moral victory, though observers say the lack of serious competition likely played a major role.
Several youth groups active in the 2011 revolution against long-time ruler Hosny Mubarak called for a boycott, and few young people were seen at polling stations.
State television showed small numbers of voters casting ballots in most areas of the country.
The broadcaster blamed high temperatures for the weak turnout -- the same reason cited by the electoral commission for its decision to open the polls for a third day.
Sabahy withdrew his delegates from polling stations nationwide to protest the extension but stopped short of quitting the race.
“My responsibility and duty oblige me to highlight to you the necessity of completing what we have begun, out of belief in our right to establish a course of democracy,” Sabahy told supporters.
His campaign charged that authorities had harassed their activists during the polls.
Human Rights Watch warned that the vote was taking place in a “repressive environment that severely undermines the fairness of the elections.” “The mass arrests of thousands of political dissidents, whether Islamist or secular, has all but shut down the political arena and stripped these elections of real meaning,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at the New York-based non-governmental organization.
“The presidential election cannot mask the ongoing brutal crackdown on peaceful opposition.” Mr. Al-Sissi supporters see him as able to end the turmoil and economic decline that have wracked Egypt since Mubarak was ousted over three years ago.
The current elections follow months of violence, which the military-backed government blamed on Mr. Morsy’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
During Wednesday’s voting, a police officer was shot dead in the border town of Rafah, witnesses said, in the latest attacks against security forces.
The Brotherhood has condemned the attacks, most of which have been claimed by militant jihadist groups.
An estimated 53.9 million voters were eligible to take part in the ballot at 14,350 polling stations across Egypt’s 27 provinces.
