Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has been re-elected with 97% of the votes, the same percentage the former military commander secured four years ago for his first term but with a lower voter turnout, official results showed on Monday.
Turnout was 41%, despite efforts to get as many Egyptians as possible to polling stations for last week's vote.
El-Sissi had been virtually guaranteed a landslide win, confirmed by early tallies as voting ended on Wednesday.
The election featured only one other candidate – himself an ardent el-Sissi supporter – after all serious opposition contenders halted their campaigns in January. The main challenger was arrested and his campaign manager was beaten up, while other candidates pulled out, citing intimidation.
El-Sissi said he had wanted more candidates to run and that he had nothing to do with the opposition withdrawals.
The election commission read out the results in a televised announcement and said the vote was held according to the "highest international standards of integrity and transparency."
El-Sissi won 21.8 million votes, compared with 656,534 for his opponent, Moussa Mostafa Moussa.
"The sight of Egyptian citizens from all walks of society lining up was impressive and inspiring," el-Sissi said in a speech to the nation.
Just after the results, thousands of Egyptians waving flags celebrated the victory in several of the country's governorates.
Critics have said the lower turnout is a potential setback for el-Sissi, who suggested before the vote that he saw it as a referendum on his presidency rather than a genuine conwwww. Turnout in the 2014 vote was 47%.
The election has revealed "obvious problems related to participation and the reluctance of young people [to vote]," politician Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a candidate who withdrew in January citing intimidation of his supporters, said in a statement.
State media had portrayed a failure to vote as a betrayal of Egypt. Local and international media reported that some voters said they were offered incentives to cast their ballots including money and food, but did not say who had made the offers.
Officials said that if any such incidents took place they were not state-sponsored and extremely limited.
Critics say el-Sissi's popularity has eroded amid tough economic reforms that have left most Egyptians worse off, and also an unprecedented crackdown on dissent.
His supporters say those measures are needed to stabilize the country, which is facing a stubborn Islamic State insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula and which was rocked by unrest after the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak.
El-Sissi led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, and swept to victory in the 2014 election with 97% of the vote.
The United Nations expressed concern over the crackdown on dissenters, including the media, that took place before last week's vote.
In a call to el-Sissi on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his "sincere congratulations" and said the United States was keen to strengthen strategic relations, according to Egyptian state news agency MENA.
The White House said in a statement that "the two leaders affirmed the strategic partnership between the United States and Egypt."
Trump has been a strong supporter of el-Sissi, describing him as a "fantastic guy" and inviting him to Washington, something former President Barack Obama never did.
British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson appeared to strike a more cautious tone, tweeting, "Look forward to working with President el-Sissi's government in his 2nd constitutional term. Egypt has an opportunity over next four years to build a prosperous and democratic society, building on rights set out in 2014 constitution."
El-Sissi's main Western and regional allies have been mostly silent over alleged human rights abuses in Egypt.
The U.S. State Department said it had noted "reports of constraints on freedoms of expression and association in the run-up to the elections" and "will continue to encourage a broadening of opportunities for political participation for Egyptians, and emphasize the importance of the protection of human rights and the vital role of civil society in Egypt."
Russia congratulated el-Sissi on his election win ahead of the official results, and regional ally King Salman of Saudi Arabia called el-Sissi on Monday to express support, saying his victory came as a result of strong efforts to combat terrorism.
