Egyptian candidates claim vote fraud

28 May 2012, 4:49 pm   -   Source: AAP

Several leading candidiates in Egypt's presidential elections have filed appeals, alleging voting law violations.

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Three top candidates in Egypt's presidential race have filed appeals to the election commission, alleging violations in the first-round vote that they say could change the outcome.

The appeals, alleging fraud, were filed ahead of a Sunday deadline. They are likely to inflame an already explosive race, with two of the most polarising candidates as the front-runners.

Preliminary results from last week's election placed Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, as the two candidates entering a June 16-17 run-off. Thirteen candidates were on the ballot.

Young, liberal secularists who led the popular rebellion that overthrew longtime leader Mubarak last year failed to place a candidate in the run-off.

A large portion of the vote - more than 40 per cent - went to candidates who were seen as more in the spirit of the uprising - neither for the Brotherhood nor for the so-called "feloul", or "remnants", of the old autocratic regime. The so-called revolutionary votes were mostly divided among the candidates who placed third and fourth.

The top finisher, the Brotherhood's Morsi, received only about 25 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Influential Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, widely respected throughout the Middle East, urged voters to support Morsi in the run-off.

Speaking on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera on Sunday evening, he said the race was not between an Islamist and a non-Islamist but between "the revolution and the enemies of the revolution".

Shafiq, who placed second after Morsi, filed an appeal to the election commission, saying votes cast for him in one province were not included in the ballot count.

Hamdeen Sabahi, a socialist and a champion of the poor who made a surprisingly strong showing, called for a partial vote recount after he placed third by a margin of about 700,000 votes after Shafiq.

Sabahi's campaign said in a statement on Sunday that its representatives had met with the elections commission to request that official results not be announced until the eligibility of voters in five provinces was reviewed.

Official first-round results are expected on Monday or Tuesday.

"The difference between votes for us and votes cast for some of the other candidates is that ours are legitimate," Sabahi told reporters on Saturday.

Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a moderate Islamist who finished fourth, filed his appeal on Sunday and also called for official results to be delayed. His lawyer said the campaign had proof that votes were cast on behalf of dead people and in other cases bribes were paid for votes.

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