In Egypt, former military general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been declared the winner in a re-election campaign blasted by critics as a farce. Initial returns show Sisi claimed 92 percent of the vote, with a turnout of just over 40 percent of eligible voters. All but one of Sisi’s challengers were barred from running, leading to wide-scale voter ambivalence toward this week’s election. This is Yasmin Madbouly, who declined to cast a ballot.

Yasmin Madbouly: “Honestly, I won’t vote. I see many others already voting, and the result has already been known from the first day. What difference will my vote make? My parents voted, and they are telling me that I must. But I won’t go.”

President Donald Trump has embraced President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as an ally, even as he has continued a wide-ranging crackdown against human rights activists across Egypt, with reports of torture, forced disappearances, mass arrests and extrajudicial killings.