Egypt's election produces surprise runner-up: Invalid votes

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's victory in last week's election was never in doubt, but the vote produced a surprise runner-up — an unusually large number of invalid ballots.

The spoiled ballots suggest a possible protest vote against el-Sissi or the election itself.

Official figures released Monday by the election commission gave el-Sissi 97 percent of the vote, securing him a second, four-year term in office following an election in which he ran virtually unopposed.

His sole challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who made no effort to challenge him, received 656,534 votes, or 2.92 percent.

Moussa's tally was outdone by the 1.76 million invalid ballots, which would have amounted to 7.27 percent of votes cast.

Source: AP