Ninety-six percent of voters, at least 21 million Egyptians, chose retired field marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who deposed elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, with ballots counted from all but a handful of 352 stations, state television reported Thursday.

Sisi's only electoral rival, leftist leader and longtime opposition figure Hamdeen Sabbahi, won less than four percent.

The former general, who retired from the army to run for office, becomes Egypt's fifth president hailing from the military, reasserting the institution's grip on politics in the Arab world's most populous nation.

The military has always formed the backbone of political life in Egypt and the institution has provided its leaders ever since army officers toppled the monarchy in 1952.

The only exception was Morsi, elected in 2012 a year after an uprising overthrew longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak, himself a former air force commander.

Sisi rode on a wave of support for a potential new strongman who can restore stability and revive the economy after three years of turmoil.

But his opponents say that since he ousted Morsi last July, Egypt has undergone a return to autocratic rule.

A state crackdown targeting Morsi supporters has left at least 1,400 people dead in street clashes and seen more than 15,000 others jailed.

Amid the crackdown on dissent condemned by rights groups and Western governments, the military-installed authorities had aimed for a high turnout as a sign of legitimacy.

Private and state-run media pressed Egyptians to go out and vote, and the Monday-Tuesday election was extended for a third day in a last-minute decision which sparked protests.

Sisi had called for at least 40 million of Egypt's almost 54 million eligible voters to go to the polling stations.

But an election commission official put actual turnout at about 25 million, or 46 percent, official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website, down from 52 percent when Morsi was elected in 2012.

NJF/NJF