Ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has scored a crushing presidential election triumph and consolidated the military's grip, 11 months after the overthrow of the only Egyptian president not drawn from its ranks. Ninety-six percent of voters, at least 21 million Egyptians, chose Sisi, who deposed elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, with ballots counted from all but a handful of 352 stations, state television reported Thursday.
Sisi's only electoral rival, leftist leader and long-time opposition figure Hamdeen Sabbahi, won less than four percent. Ahead of the final official results, hundreds of Sisi supporters took to the streets on Wednesday night to celebrate, waving Egyptian flags, setting off fireworks and honking car horns.