Putin congratulates Sisi for winning second term

CAIRO – 2 April 2018: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, a message on Monday, April 2 to congratulate him for winning a second term in office.

According to Russian news agency TASS, Putin wished for an enhancement of the two countries’ relations during the coming period. In his message, Putin affirmed to Sisi that his “huge win” proves the support and trust of the Egyptian people in his leadership abilities.

“Russia appreciates the strategic partnership with Egypt,” Putin’s message stated. This is, however, the second time for the Russian president to congratulate Sisi, as he sent him another message on March 30, shortly after the preliminary results for 2018’s election indicated that Sisi was apparently going to win. In the first message, Putin also congratulated his Egyptian counterpart.

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. His competitor, Moussa Moustafa Moussa, received 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, when Sisi competed against well-known politician Hamdeen Sabahy, invalid votes ranked second in the poll. In the 2014 vote, 23.4 million people voted for Sisi, invalid votes accounted for one million ballots, and Sabahy won 740,000 votes.

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