The situation in Egypt yesterday June 21 remained tense after the electoral commission on Wednesday June 20 announced a delay in the release of results of last weekend’s second round presidential election, the State-run Nile TV reported. The results had been due for release yesterday.
The commission justified the decision by saying it needed more time to consider the 400 complaints lodged by both candidates in the election. The Moslem Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq both claim they won the poll. According to the BBC, the announcement of the delay has further raised tension across the polarised country, prompting thousands of opposition supporters to protest in Tahrir Square in the capital, Cairo.
The Moslem Brotherhood is also angry at recent constitutional amendments giving the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, SCAF sweeping political and legislative powers. The Brotherhood has said the protests will continue until the election results are announced and the military give up their sweeping powers.
On top of the potentially explosive election dispute looms renewed uncertainty over the latest health scare of 84-year-old former President Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in Egypt's uprising last year and is now serving a life prison sentence. Security officials on Wednesday said the ousted leader was in a coma and no longer on life support and that his heart and other vital organs were functioning. A report in The New York Times quoted a lawyer for the ex-leader as saying Mubarak had only fallen down in the prison bathroom.
There have been more complaints about the presidential runoff than any election since Mubarak's ouster in the 2011 popular revolt. But foreign and local monitors say the violations they observed were not serious or large-scale enough to question the legality of the process. An unofficial tally released on Wednesday by a coalition of independent judges gave Mursi 13.2 million votes, compared to 12.3 million for Shafiq. Mursi’s aides claimed he got 52 per cent of votes as against Shafiq's 48 per cent. The Shafiq camp countered that the former Air force Commander won with 51.5 per cent of the votes.
