Kuwaiti Emir congratulates Sisi for winning 2nd term

CAIRO – 2 April 2018: Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah congratulated President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on his re-election to a second term, according to Kuwaiti owned-news agency Kuna on Monday.

Al-Sabah sent Sisi a cable praising the historical relations between both countries, noting his aspiration to stronger bonds and greater cooperation.

President Sisi garnered 97.08 percent of valid votes in the presidential election last week, where more than 21.8 million people voted for him. Meanwhile, his barely known competitor, Ghad Party Chairman Moussa Moustafa Moussa, received only 656,534 votes, making up 2.9 percent of the valid ballots. The turnout stood at 24,254,152 voters, representing 41 percent of 50,078,138 registered voters

Much like the 2014 election, where Sisi competed against well-known politician Hamdeen Sabahy, invalid votes ranked second in the poll.

In 2018, invalid votes made up 7.27 percent of the total votes, accounting for 1.762 million ballots. If the invalid votes are not excluded from the result, Sisi's share of the total votes would be 90 percent.

In a Monday press conference, the National Election Authority announced the unsurprising figures, and its head, Judge Ibrahim Lachine, applauded the turnout of Egyptian expats abroad and the judicial supervision of the poll.

In the 2014 vote, 23.4 million people voted for Sisi, invalid votes accounted for one million ballots, and Sabahy amassed 740,000 votes.