CAIRO, June 19, 2012 (AFP)
Ousted Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, won a presidential election runoff, his campaign team insisted on Tuesday, disputing his Islamist rival’s claim of victory.
“We are certain that the next president of Egypt is General Shafiq,” his campaign spokesman Ahmed Sarhan told a news conference.
Shafiq leads Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi by “51.5 percent,” said another spokesman, Karim Salem, adding that the former premier would celebrate the win with supporters after the results are officially announced on Thursday. “We are ready to take legal action… to confirm and prove he is the future president of Egypt,” Salem added.
But the campaign declined to give full vote figures, saying it was the electoral commission’s job to announce the results. Sarhan said Shafiq had won by more by than 500,000 votes. Appeals submitted by his campaign could affect about a million votes in the official result, he added.
Shafiq’s campaign earlier insisted he had triumphed over Mursi, whose campaign claimed victory early Monday, just hours after polls closed.
