Moderate-Islamist candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh (Photo: Bassam El-Zoghbi)
Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh's presidential campaign has filed a complaint with Egypt's Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) to halt the announcement of official polling results on the grounds that electoral violations transpired during the recently concluded first round of Egyptian presidential elections.
According to a statement released on Sunday by the Abul-Fotouh campaign, the alleged violations "are beyond simply filing an appeal…they represent clear infractions of the law and threaten the transparency of the entire electoral process."
The statement goes on to cite some of the violations that the Abul-Fotouh campaign claims took place during the polling and vote-counting process. These include the existence of names of deceased persons on electoral lists; barring candidates' deputies – charged with overseeing the voting process – from polling stations; opening polling stations' doors ahead of schedule; and the absence of supervising judges in certain polling stations.
The statement also criticised the behaviour of certain polling station employees, who the Abul-Fotouh campaign claims filled in ballots for voters without asking to see identification in some cases.
The first round of Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential election was conducted on 23 and 24 May. Moderate-Islamist candidate Abul-Fotouh took 18 percent of the vote, putting him at fourth place and eliminating him from the race.
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