Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh said on Monday that the results of the first round of the presidential election should not be trusted, and accused the government of manipulating the process and other candidates of buying votes.
“I cannot call these elections clean under any circumstances, even if they announce that I won,” Abouel Fotouh said in a press conference. “I had hoped that at the least it would be as fair as the parliamentary elections [held late last year]. It wasn’t.”
Preliminary results have placed the former Muslim Brotherhood member fourth among the 13 candidates on the ballot, though he was previously considered a top contender.
The Presidential Elections Commission, which organized the elections, will announce its official results later on Monday. Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy is expected to come in the lead, followed by Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under deposed President Hosni Mubarak. The two leading candidates will face off in a runoff election on 16 and 17 June.
Hundreds of complaints of electoral violations have been filed with the elections commission.
Abouel Fotouh said there were three main violations during the voting. His campaign was not allowed to view voter lists either before or after the election, although that is a legal right, he said.
He also accused security forces of removing candidates’ representatives from polling stations for hours during the vote counting process last Thursday night and Friday morning. A spokesperson for Abouel Fotouh later told Egypt Independent that this occurred in 12,000 polling stations throughout the country.
Abouel Fotouh also said that billions of pounds were spent buying votes, claiming that in some areas votes were being sold for up to LE1,000. He also accused the campaigns of “feloul,” or remnants of the former regime, of using taxpayers’ money to support their candidate.
Shafiq should never have been allowed to run, Abouel Fotouh said, because of a law passed by parliament in late April banning recent members of the Mubarak government from running.
Abouel Fotouh said that although he is out of the race, he would use the momentum from his campaign for the good of the country, but did not specify in what capacity. He did not endorse a candidate, but denied that he met with Morsy on Sunday.
