The Presidential Elections Committee met yesterday with representatives of both presidential candidates Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq to discuss appeals both sides have made questioning election results as well as allegations of electoral violations.
The candidates have together filed almost 400 appeals and due to the large number, the PEC decided to meet with them or their representatives to listen to their reasons before deciding which cases to accept and which to reject, said PEC head Farouk Sultan.
The PEC announced that it may not make its previously set deadline of June 21 to deliver the results due to the large number of appeals it must review.
During their meeting with the PEC yesterday, representatives of Morsi’s campaign argued that many of the main district polling stations had miscalculated tallying the results they received from provincial sub-district polling stations which led to Morsi losing votes that he deserved. Morsi’s representatives also argued that all of Shafiq’s appeals should be rejected. Morsi campaign representatives said the PEC told them they would be rejecting all of Shafiq’s appeals as he had filed them directly with PEC instead of doing so with the main district polling stations nearest to where the incidents were reported. This was in violation of article 36 of the presidential elections law, the campaign representatives noted. The brotherhood said they were not worried about the appeals because the difference between candidate’s votes ensured a Morsi victory. “The appeals presented by both sides are all regarding minor issues and will in no way affect the results,” said Samir Waseem, a member of the Morsi presidential campaign.
“Furthermore, there are many appeals which will be rejected automatically for not being filed properly,” he added.
Both the Morsi and Shafiq campaigns have been claiming victory over the last few days and disputing each other’s results. The Morsi camp said it received its results from the reports filed by judges in the provincial sub-district polling centres after the count. The campaign representatives also claimed to have the published reports.
“Ahmed Shafiq has not shown the media a single piece of paper that demonstrates his victory,” said Waseem. “On the other hand, we have given all journalists a CD with all the results from the provincial and main polling centres,” he added. Waseem was very confident and said that the notion of Shafiq winning was part of a plot. “The people have shown in the street that they refuse any tampering with the results,” he said, adding, “not to protect a candidate but rather to protect their will.”
