ISRAEL CONGRATULATES EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT ABDUL FATTAH EL-SISI

Tel Aviv, 9 Sha’ban 1435/7 June 2014 (MINA) -Israeli President Shimon Peres and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday congratulated Egyptian President-elect Abdul Fattah el-Sisi.

In a statement, Peres said he “stressed Israel’s commitment to maintain the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and strengthen the cooperation between the countries” and “wished the Egyptian people prosperity and success,” Al gemeiner quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Peres “expressed his hope that President Sisi will lead Egypt to great achievements. At the end of the conversation, President Sisi thanked President Peres for his warm words,” the statement said.

Separately, Netanyahu said he “noted the strategic importance of ties between the two countries and of upholding the peace agreement between them, and wished the Egyptian people a stable, prosperous and peaceful future.”

Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is claimed won the election by  landslide victory of over 96 percent of the popular vote, or as much as 44.4 percent (23.38 million voters) of a total of 54 million Egyptians.

El-Sisi’s only rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, garnered a humble 3.5 percent, with less than 800 000 votes, while al-Sisi itself gets with over 23 million voters casting their ballots for him, Egypt’s Ahram reported.

A surprise in the 2014 presidential race was the number of invalidated votes – exceeding 1 million – which prompted Egyptians to joke on social media that Sabahi and the spoilt ballots were competing for second place in the election.

Although the results are announced by the judges supervising polling centres across the country, they are still considered unofficial as they must be verified and then announced by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC), the judicial body overseeing the poll.(T/P03/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)