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Cumpliendo el guion establecido en varios países del mundo tras un golpe de Estado, Egipto ha celebrado elecciones presidenciales en las que ha resultado vencedor, con el 93,3% de los votos, el general Abdelfatá al Sisi, el exjefe del Ejército que en julio de 2013 —asegurando que pretendía salvar la democracia— protagonizó un golpe de Estado.

Protests have been taking place in cities across Egypt, days after the country elected former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi its president in a vote his sole contender has appealed.

On Friday, demonstrators took to the streets in the capital Cairo, Bani Suef and Fayoum, holding banners with photos of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi and chanting against the president-elect.

Preliminary results from the three-day election that ended on Wednesday gave 96 percent of votes to Sisi and 3 percent to leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

Egypt’s former military chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, vowed on Thursday that the country would not go backwards but move forward after the initial results of the presidential election see him winning by a landslide.

“We know that some people fear a return to the past, but this will not happen, there is no going back and we will move forward,” Sisi said responding to a question about the fears of a return to the situation before the Jan. 25 revolution, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Aljarida.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday that an "intense crackdown" on the opposition in Egypt is creating a "repressive environment that severely undermines the fairness of the elections."

In a news brief, HRW's Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson said: "The mass arrests of thousands of political dissidents, whether Islamist or secular, has all but shut down the political arena and stripped these elections of real meaning."

Whitson added: "The presidential election cannot mask the ongoing brutal crackdown on peaceful opposition."

Egyptians headed to the polls for the third day on Wednesday to cast their ballots and choose between only two rival candidates: former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. The turnout remains low so far, despite ongoing attempts by the media, state officials and both contenders' campaigns urging citizens to vote.

Egyptian liberal politician and President of Ghad al-Thawra Party Ayman Nour dismissed the current presidential elections as "one-sided."

Nour, who ran against Mubarak in the 2005 Presidential elections, told Reuters on the sidelines of Aljazeera Forum Monday that the presidential elections are being held in a climate of "monopoly of power" and lack any genuine completion.

Even under Mubarak, he said, "there was no such clear monopoly of the presidential race as what is happening now."