The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes Amy Hawthorne, resident senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, on how a high number of spoiled ballots and low voter turn-out will impact Egyptian elections:

Analysts say the election could tarnish Sisi’s victory and make it harder for him to rule or indicate a deep national division that may trigger greater violence.

“The interesting thing is the lengths to which the election authority, the state, and the various backers of Sisi had to go” to get Egyptians to vote in their seventh national election since a 2011 revolution, said Amy Hawthorne, a senior fellow and Egypt expert at the Atlantic Council.

Election officials said 47.3 percent of voters turned out. In 2012, 52 percent voted in a nail-biting race between Islamist Mohamed Morsy and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.