According to SPEC figures, the five front-running candidates (and their respective votes) were as follows:
1. Mohamed Mursi<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/124/40539/Presidential-elections-/Meet-the-candidates/Mohamed-Mursi.aspx> ( 5,764,952 votes) 2. Ahmed Shafiq<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/124/36798/Presidential-elections-/Meet-the-candidates/Ahmed-Shafiq.aspx> (5,505,327 votes) 3. Hamdeen Sabbahi<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/124/36856/Presidential-elections-/Meet-the-candidates/Hamdeen-Sabbahi.aspx> (4,820,273 votes) 4. Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/124/36854/Presidential-elections-/Meet-the-candidates/AbdelMoneim-AbulFotouh.aspx> (4,065,239 votes) 5. Amr Moussa<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/124/36116/Presidential-elections-/Meet-the-candidates/Amr-Moussa.aspx> (2,588,850 votes) At Monday's press conference, SPEC Chairman Farouk Sultan, who is also head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, confirmed that four appeals lodged against the final vote count had been thrown out. Sultan neglected to specify which presidential candidates had lodged the appeals. Sultan also noted that three additional appeals had not been considered, since they were submitted after the deadline set by the SPEC for challenging vote results. *He went on to say that the number of valid ballots cast in the first round had come to 23,265,516, putting total turnout at 46.42 per cent of eligible voters. The number of invalid ballots, meanwhile, stood at 406,720, according to Sultan.* The last time Egyptians went to the polls to elect a president was in 2005, in the country's first-ever "multi-candidate elections." Mubarak secured 87 per cent of the vote (6.3 million votes) in that poll, while liberal lawyer and Ghad Party founder Ayman Nour finished a distant second with 7 per cent (540,000 votes). Some 7.1 million Egyptians out of 32 million registered voters cast ballots that year. Sabbahi's Karama Party to boycott Mursi-Shafiq presidential showdown<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/43114/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Sabbahis-Karama-Party-to-boycott-MursiShafiq-presi.aspx> <http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/36/43145/Presidential-elections-/Alexandria-roars-Where-is-Egypts-revolution-in-ang.aspx> Alexandria roars: 'Where is Egypt's revolution?' in anger at runoff <http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/36/43145/Presidential-elections-/Alexandria-roars-Where-is-Egypts-revolution-in-ang.aspx> Protesters angry at Ahmed Shafiq's presence in the upcoming runoff round and the exclusion of popular Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi took to the streets in Alexandria <http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/43096/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Minervas-owl-flies-at-dusk-A-quick-reading-of-Egyp.aspx> 2 comments Minerva's owl flies at dusk: A quick reading of Egypt's presidential vote<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/43096/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Minervas-owl-flies-at-dusk-A-quick-reading-of-Egyp.aspx> The nightmare scenario has come to be, yet there is much more to the first round of the Egyptian presidential elections than meets the eye Egypt run-off confirmed as appeals rejected A combination of file photos shows presidential candidates, former prime minister Ahmed Shafik (l) and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi (r). (Photo: Reuters Amr Abdallah Dalsh Mohamed Abd El Ghany) Published Monday, May 28, 2012 Egypt's election committee on Monday rejected all appeals against the first-round of voting in the country's presidential poll and confirmed the two candidates to face off in next month's vote, an Egyptian newspaper said. Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi will go up against Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister under the US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak, after the two received the most votes in last week's poll. Two candidates who narrowly missed the runoff had appealed the results, alleging violations in the voting process. The country's election committee, however, rejected the appeals, according to the Egyptian daily *Al Masry Al-Youm*. The paper quoted Mohamed Momtaz, a member of the committee, as saying all the appeals filed by losing candidates had been dismissed. Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, an Islamist who finished fourth, filed his appeal on Sunday, calling for official results to be delayed. His lawyer said he had proof that votes were cast on behalf of dead people and that bribes were paid for votes. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Abul Fotouh alleged to have proof of violations during the elections. "I cannot call these elections clean under any circumstances, even if they announce that I won," Abul Futouh said, adding: "I have to declare that the elections were not transparent." Abul Futouh was a leading candidate heading into the race after securing the backing of the Salafi Al-Nour Party, but finished fourth after the first round. The Islamist candidate claimed that vote buying took place, his team was not allowed to view voter's lists, and representatives of the candidates were not allowed to oversee the ballot boxes overnight to ensure they were not tampered with, which they were allowed to do during the parliamentary elections. Leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished just two percent behind Shafik, also alleged that there was widespread fraud. "The difference between votes for us and votes cast for some of the other candidates is that ours are legitimate," he said. The two candidates will now seek to gain the backing of the disqualified candidates, with both claiming to be representatives of the revolution that overthrow former dictator Hosni Mubarak last year. The powerful Al-Nour Party announced on Monday it would back Mursi in the runoff, a crucial nomination for the Brotherhood candidate. "The High Committee of the Al-Nour Party supports Doctor Mohammed Mursi for president of the republic in the runoff," the party said on its official Twitter account. However, both former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Abul Fotouh said they would not endorse either candidate. A "return to the old regime is unacceptable. So is exploiting religion in politics," Moussa told a press conference. "Egyptians will only be comfortable with a civil state. A religious state is something very divisive," he warned. Abul Fotouh also said he would not endorse a particular candidate ahead of the final poll. "He did not give a clear support of the Brotherhood, saying he it was too early as the results were not officially appealed," *Al-Akhbar*correspondent, Sarah Sirgany, said from the press conference. *No choice at all* On Sunday the heads and representatives of 30 political parties and several revolutionary youth groups jointly rejected the Muslim Brotherhoods domination over Egyptian politics. The Brotherhood is the largest party in the country's parliament and had originally said it would not field a presidential candidate, only to reverse that decision. The opposition groups called for the dissolution of the Brotherhood as one of the conditions of backing Mursi in the run-off. In an act echoing the discontent, the Muslim Brotherhood's Twitter account was hacked. Comments and posts criticizing the Islamist group were displayed on the page and the hackers replaced the profile picture of Mohammed Mursi with one of Khaled Said, an Egyptian citizen whose death helped spark last year's revolution. Down with the Muslim Brotherhood and the remnants of the former Mubarak regime, Long live the revolution, Dedicated to the martyrs, and Khaled Said forever the hackers wrote. Liberal Egyptian protesters have condemned the election results, with many angry at having to choose between the Islamist Mursi and Shafik, the *feloul * (remnants) of the old autocratic regime. "It's the worst situation that anyone could have imagined, to be honest," activist Baho Bakhsh said, adding that he would settle for the lesser of the two evils and back Mursi, as Shafik embodied everything he had struggled against. Activist Ahmed Zahran was also unhappy about the prospect of a Mursi-Shafik runoff, but confirmed he would vote for Mursi. "Personally I would not even consider voting for Shafik, for moral reasons," he says, while admitting that "normally I wouldn't consider voting for the Muslim Brotherhood." Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry announced it had begun monitoring voting stations that witnessed tension during the first round of the presidential election in order to secure them in the runoff phase. The police and the armed forces are ready to deal with such attempts, Ahmed Gamal Eddin, assistant interior minister for public security, said. *(Al-Akhbar, AFP)* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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