Presidential candidate Mohamed Mursy (Photo: Reuters)
Sources inside presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi's campaign told Ahram Online on Sunday that their candidate will be announced president at 3pm, as the Muslim Brother leads with more than 650 thousand votes. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Ahram Online that the results were finalised late Saturday night, after which both candidates were informed of the results.
On Saturday sources within the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) told media that after looking into the appeals Sunday's announcement would not differ greatly from the results announced by polling stations.
Tens of thousands of Ahmed Shafiq's supporters, Morsi's runoff rival, gathered Saturday night in Nasr City to celebrate what they described as their candidate's expected victory.
In a post on Twitter, Ahmed Sarhan, Shafiq's campaign spokesperson, wrote: "As we announced from the first day we will respect the results announced by the SPEC and we are proud of its authenticity. We expect the civilised Egyptian people to respect its decisions. Today Egypt celebrates."
Both campaigns have been claiming victory for days.
Egypt has been on high security alert for the past week, fuelling speculations that the SCAF was preparing to announce Shafiq as the winner. However, strategic analyst Talaat Musalam told Ahram Online "the situation will be very tense whether Morsi or Shafiq is announced president. The security measures do not imply anything other than the fact that the ruling military council believes the political scene is very tense".
The SPEC is expected to announce the final results of Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential elections at 3pm Sunday.
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