Egypt opposition cast doubt on presidential poll results

CAIRO 

Opponents of Egypt's interim authorities on Thursday voiced doubts about the preliminary results of the country's just-concluded presidential election, which wrapped up on Wednesday.

Some critics described the election as "satire," saying early unofficial poll results contradicted the situation on the ground.

"The announced election results contradict the election voter turnout," Magdi Qorqor, spokesman for the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, which supports ousted president Mohamed Morsi, said.

"The majority of the public, along with the alliance's supporters, boycotted the election," he told Anadolu Agency.

Egypt's first post-Morsi presidential election crossed the finish line late on Wednesday after three days of voting.

According to an AA tally, more than 25.3 million Egyptians – or 47 percent of the nearly 54 million registered voters – showed up at polling stations nationwide.

Former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi commanded a sweeping 96.7 percent of the votes, according to AA's tally.

Al-Sisi and leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi were the only two candidates in the race.

Official results should be announced by the presidential election commission before June 5.

The election was widely boycotted by supporters of the ousted president and youth groups opposed to the army general's presidential bid.

In a bid to encourage voting, the government declared Tuesday, the second day of voting, an official holiday.

The electoral commission later extended the two-day vote, which kicked off Monday, by an extra day.

Soon after the curtains fell on the election, thousands of al-Sisi supporters took to the streets across the country to celebrate.

The presidential election is the second step on Egypt's transitional roadmap, which was declared upon Morsi's ouster on July 3.

Qorqor said estimates by the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy put election voter turnout between 10 and 12 percent only.  

"This election has usurped the will of the public as the coup did before with all the elections held in Egypt since the January 25, 2011 revolution," Qorqor said.

The Muslim Brotherhood's party, meanwhile, said the public had expressed their opposition to the current authorities by staying away from the ballot boxes.

The Freedom and Justice Party said the public boycott of the election dealt a severe blow to claims by the interim authorities that they had a monopoly on public support.

The same message was affirmed by the Strong Egypt Party, which said the public boycott of the election had cast doubt on media claims that the public was united on the latest political developments in Egypt.

"It shows that this unity is nothing but the making of the media," the party said in a statement.

"The people are no longer able to accept media lies that try to gloss over the realities on the ground," the party added.

The April 6 protest movement, which opposes the current authorities, described the declared election results as "lies."

"Civil society reports about the election say that 12 million people at most participated in the event," Mohamed Youssef, a member of the movement's politburo, told AA.

He said his movement would continue to maintain the "Against You" campaign – which it launched against al-Sisi a few weeks ago – even after he is officially sworn in as president.  

By Hagar al-Dosoki

www.aa.com.tr/en