Sabbahi Concedes Defeat in Egypt Vote, Voices Respect for 'People Choice'

Leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi conceded defeat Thursday after preliminary results from Egypt's presidential election gave ex-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi 96 percent of the vote.

Speaking at a news conference, Sabbahi said "I accept my defeat and respect the people's choice" in the three-day election that ended on Wednesday.

Ninety-six percent of voters, at least 21 million Egyptians, chose Sisi, who deposed elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, with ballots counted from all but a handful of 352 stations, state television reported Thursday.

Sabbahi, Sisi's only electoral rival, won less than four percent, according to the preliminary results.

The longtime opposition figure cast doubt Thursday on the estimated turnout figure of 47 percent after calls for a high participation rate as a sign of legitimacy.

Sisi, who retired from the army to run for office, becomes Egypt's fifth president from the military, reasserting the institution's grip on politics in the Arab world's most populous nation.

The military has always formed the backbone of political life in Egypt and the institution has provided its leaders ever since army officers toppled the monarchy in 1952.

The only exception was Morsi, elected a year after the fall of Mubarak, himself a former air force commander.

Sisi rode on a wave of support for a potential new strongman who can restore stability and revive the economy after three years of turmoil.

But his opponents say that since he ousted Morsi last July, Egypt returned to autocracy.

A state crackdown targeting Morsi supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead in street clashes and seen more than 15,000 others jailed.

Dozens of young activists have also been jailed for violating a law banning all but police-authorized protests.

A European Union team that observed the election said Thursday the vote was conducted "in line with the law," although it regretted the lack of participation of some "stakeholders", in a likely reference to Morsi's banned Muslim Brotherhood and youth dissident groups.

Amid the crackdown on dissent condemned by rights groups and Western governments, the military-installed authorities had aimed for a high turnout as a sign of legitimacy.

Private and state-run media pressed Egyptians to go out and vote, and the election was extended for a third day in a last-minute decision which sparked protests.

Sisi had called for at least 40 million of Egypt's almost 54 million electorate to go to the polling stations.

Although it could edge higher, authorities put actual turnout at about 25 million, or 47 percent, down from 52 percent when Morsi was elected in 2012.

The Muslim Brotherhood hailed what it sees as a successful boycott.

"The great Egyptian people have given a new slap to the military coup's roadmap and... written the death certificate of the military coup," said its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.

All of the movement's main leaders are now in jail or exile, and Morsi himself is being tried on charges that could carry the death penalty.

Prominent activists behind the uprising which ousted Mubarak three years ago had also called for a boycott, charging that Sisi is an even worse autocrat in the making.