Egypt presidential challenger loses to spoilt ballots

CAIRO (AA) - Early indications on Thursday suggested that more Egyptians cast spoilt ballots than voted for Musa Mustafa Musa, who ran in recently-concluded polls against incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

According to initial results published by local media, spoilt votes accounted for 6 percent while Musa clinched only 3 percent of the vote.

Earlier Thursday, Egyptian flagship daily Al-Ahram reported that al-Sisi had clinched almost 92 percent of ballots cast.

Roughly 25 million people -- out of 59 million eligible voters -- cast ballots during the three-day vote, which amounts to a turnout rate of 42 percent, according to Al-Ahram.

Online critics, however, challenge Al-Ahram’s figures, saying they have been vastly inflated. They also accuse the Egyptian authorities of forcing civil servants to vote and bribing poor people to cast ballots.

Egypt’s official electoral commission will officially announce final poll results Monday.