Preliminary results: Sisi leads, with less than 50% of voter turnout

As vote counting continued through the early hours of Thursday, presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi swept the presidential polls, with a turnout ranging between 38 and 59 percent of voters. His rival, Hamdeen Sabbahi, only garnered a single digit percentage where vote counting was complete. 

The latest tally by privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm states that Sisi has 23,960,556 votes in total so far, 96.9 percent of the total number of valid votes, while candidate Hamdeen Sabahi received 754,757 votes, making up 3.1 percent of the total number of votes. 

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the number of invalid votes stands at 1,028,000, with the total number of voters reaching 25,744,130, some 47.7 percent of the total voting mass.

In the coastal city of Alexandria, where a large Salafi base resides and which leadership opted for Sisi's support, the military candidate got 1,603,621 votes, while Sabbahi received 56,258 votes, according to the independent Aswat Masreya website. 

In Kafr al-Sheikh, the Delta city from which Sabbahi hails, Al-Ahram reported that Sisi led with 852,594 votes against 54,114 for Sabbahi, with a 47 percent turnout. 

Gharbiya, a governorate in the Delta, saw a 59 percent turnout, with votes for Sisi's votes at 1,733,707 and 36,219 votes for Sabbahi, according to Al-Ahram.

In Sharqiya, the hometown of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, 1,912,669 people voted for Sisi and 42,302 voted for Sabbahi, according to Aswat Masreya. 

Menoufiya, the Delta city, saw 1,407,213 vote for Sisi and 19,788 vote for Sabbahi, according to Aswat Masreya. 

In Damietta, Aswat Masreya reports 456,575 for Sisi and 12,356 for Sabbahi. 

In the populous governorate of Giza, south of Cairo, Sisi got 1,789,425 votes and Sabbahi 70,537, according to Aswat Masreya.

The newspaper reported that in the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan, a tourism stronghold, Sisi got 303,618 votes and Sabbahi 8989.

In Beheira, 477,204 voted for Sisi, and 39,134 voted for Sabbahi.

In Fayoum, once a stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood which Sisi ousted from power last year, preliminary results, according to the state-run Al-Ahram, show that 457,185 people voted for Sisi and 18,789 for Sabbahi, with a 30 percent turnout.

In the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut, 673,936 voted for Sisi and 3338 voted for Sabbahi, according to Aswat Masreya.

In Matrouh, the coastal city west of Cairo, 53,840 voted for Sisi and 2999 voted for Sabbahi, according to Aswat Masreya.

The South Sinai governorate, another tourist destination, 34,145 voted for Sisi and 2,050 voted for Sabbahi, according to Aswat Masreya.

In the New Valley of the Western Desert, Sisi got 58,984 votes, while Sabbahi got 2,719, with a 43.6 percent turnout, according to the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm.

In the Suez Canal, Aswat Masreya reported 852,504 votes for Sisi and 54,114 for Sabbahi in Suez. 

After votes were counted in Luxor, Qena, and Minya earlier on Thursday, votes for presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi went up to 1,707,633 and his rival candidate Hamdeen Sabahi got 61,928, according to state owned news portal EgyNews.