Vote result delay frays Egyptian nerves

CAIRO (Reuters) - Allegations of fraud delayed the result of Egypt's presidential election on Thursday, fraying nerves as the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims victory, called for street protests against moves by the ruling generals to deny them power.

Hundreds of protesters gathered for a third day in Cairo's Tahrir Square, cauldron of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak 16 months ago, to demand that the officers who pushed him aside keep their word and hand over to civilians by July 1.

There is little sign that will happen after the ruling military council dissolved the Islamist-led parliament and set strict limits on the new president's powers. But prominent Islamists dampened talk of violence, for all their promise of permanent town square vigils until their demands are met.

The state election committee has spent four days collating counts from the two-day run-off ballot but said it would miss a target of Thursday for announcing the result as it was going through hundreds of complaints from both sides. As the weekend starts on Friday, that might mean a wait until Sunday.

"We are taking our time to review the appeals to investigate them properly but, God willing, the results will be announced by Sunday at most, if not before that," Judge Maher el-Beheiry, a member of the election committee, told Reuters.

The candidates, Ahmed Shafik, a former general and Mubarak aide, and the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsy have both called for national unity as the delay jangled the nerves of a nation increasingly suspicious of the military and the Mubarak-era establishment, or "deep state", that survived the revolution.

Some see the delay as a bid to pressure the Brotherhood to accept the military decree that curbed the president's powers before any Morsy presidency. The committee insists it is simply a procedural issue to ensure all appeals are fairly assessed.

CRISIS

"Egypt on the verge of exploding," Al-Watan daily wrote in a front-page headline, highlighting worries about how supporters of rival camps will respond if their candidate loses. "Security alert before the presidential result," wrote Al-Masry Al-Youm.

"The interest of the nation goes before narrow interests," said reformist politician Mohamed ElBaradei on Twitter. "What is required immediately is a mediation committee to find a political and legal exit from the crisis. Egypt is on the verge of explosion."

Cairo's cafes and social media were alive with chatter about troops preparing to secure major cities, but military sources played down the idea that there was any unusual activity beyond extra alertness.

Adding to unease, Mubarak was himself back in the news, being let out of the prison where he began a life sentence this month for treatment at a military hospital. Security sources have said the 84-year-old was slipping in and out of a coma but "stabilising". Many Egyptians suspect the generals are exaggerating to get their old comrade out of jail.

The political uncertainty has taken its toll on an already battered economy. The pound has hit a seven-year low against the dollar, and Egypt's benchmark share index has tumbled 17 percent since the first round of the vote in May.

In a nation where vote-rigging was the norm during 60 years of military rule, and which is reeling from what critics called a "soft coup" by the generals in the past week, the results delay fuelled mutual suspicions of foul play.

"There is absolutely no justification for the result of the vote to be delayed," Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, describing complaints from the Shafik camp as either invalid or too few to affect the result.

He called on Shafik to show "chivalry" and accept defeat.

Morsy said within hours of polls closing last Sunday that he had beaten Shafik by 52 percent to 48 percent, figures the Brotherhood has stuck to, citing its detailed collation of local results.

Shafik's camp said on Wednesday it remained confident that its man, whom Mubarak appointed prime minister during the uprising, would win, although a spokesman for Shafik also described the vote as "too close to call".

NEGATIVE VOTING

The spokesman accused the Brotherhood of divisive tactics by trying to pre-empt the state election committee, but pledged to honour any result: "In the event that candidate Morsy is indeed successful," he said, "the first telephone call that he will receive will be from candidate Shafik."

If defeated, Shafik would be willing to serve in a Brotherhood government or other post, he said, and if victorious, the former air force commander would appoint an Islamist as one of three vice presidents, and would offer ministerial posts to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The election showed strong support on both sides of the run-off after many Egyptians were disappointed by the elimination of other candidates in last month's first round, but many voted negatively - against Shafik because he was of the old government, or against Morsy and the prospect of religious rule.

The young, secular urban activists who were inspired by the overthrow of Tunisia's dictator to rise up against Mubarak in the Arab Spring have been dismayed by the success of the Muslim Brotherhood, based on its decades of clandestine organisation. But many put aside their qualms to back Morsy in the run-off.

"Any attempt to impose Shafik, any attempt at manipulation by the military council to impose him on us, will take Egypt into a period of instability and tension," Ahmed Maher of the April 6 youth protest movement told Reuters.

"We will take to the streets and protest."

Whoever is declared winner, the next president's powers have already been curbed in the last-minute decree issued by the army after it ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-led parliament.

The European Union on Wednesday joined the United States, both major aid donors, in expressing "concern" at what the army moves meant for a promised transition to democracy. But with the Egyptian army still, as it was throughout Mubarak's 30 years in power, a major ally in the confrontation with militant Islam, Western pressure on Cairo's generals may be limited.

On Tuesday, election monitors from the Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the peace between Egypt and Israel that unlocked U.S. aid, said they could not call the election free and fair as they were denied sufficient access to polling stations and results collation.

The Brotherhood has called for open-ended protests against the army's decree to limit the president's role and retain powers, But said it would not resort to violence.

"We are fighting a legal struggle via the establishment and a popular struggle in the streets," Saad al-Katatni, speaker of the dissolved parliament, told Reuters. "This is the ceiling. I see the continuation of the struggle in this way."

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