According to Al-Masry Al-Youm’s count, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy garnered 51.13 percent of the vote, securing the post of the president, after a fierce runoff that pushed former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq out of the race with a slim difference.
ELECTIONS
Al-Masry Al-Youm’s count: Morsy wins presidency with 51.13 percent of poll
Egypt Independent, 6/18/2012
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm’s count, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy garnered 51.13 percent of the vote, securing the post of the president, after a fierce runoff that pushed former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq out of the race with a slim difference. Morsy gathered 12,322,549 votes, while Shafiq got 12,201,549, or 48.87 percent of the vote. There were reportedly 24,965,772 valid votes. Turnout was approximately 49.7 percent of the 50,524,933 eligible voters nationwide, a surge from the first round of the presidential election in which the turnout was at 46.42 percent. The highest turnout was witnessed in the two Delta governorates of Sharqiya and Qalyubiya, while the lowest turnout was in the two Upper Egyptian governorates of Qena and Aswan. Official results are to be announced by the Presidential Elections Commission on Thursday, after it looks into appeals to the vote counting process throughout the week.
Shafiq’s campaign accuses Muslim Brotherhood of announcing ‘fake’ results
Ahram Online, Al Masry Al Youm (Arabic), 6/18/2012
In an electric atmosphere, members of Ahmed Shafiq’s campaign have said that their candidate is leading the race, frustrated with what they referred to as “facade” results of Mursi’s winning. “We’ve spotted massive violations from Mursi’s campaign, and according to our counting our candidate is leading with 51.5% to 52%,” said Ahmed Sarhan, spokesman of Ahmed Shafiq’s campaign. Sarhan further said that Mursi’s campaign should drop all their allegations of vote-rigging against Shafiq accusing the Brotherhood candidate of "spreading lies about the results of the vote all along.” The media coordinator of Shafiq’s campaign told Ahram Online, "Mursi’s campaign are spreading fake news of victory in order to be able to claim vote-rigging when Shafiq wins.”
GOVERNMENT
SCAF expands its power with constitutional amendments
Al Ahram (Arabic), Egypt Independent, 6/18/2012
As vote counting got underway in the second and final round of Egypt’s presidential election, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued amendments to the Constitutional Declaration that will limit the powers of the coming president and expand the military’s role, notably giving it a heavy influence over the writing of the country’s next constitution. The amended Article 60 gives the SCAF the power to potentially appoint a Constituent Assembly to write the next constitution if the current assembly fails to complete its mandate. The current assembly was elected by a Parliament that was dissolved last week by court order. The Constituent Assembly is required to complete its work within three months and then put its draft to a popular referendum. The SCAF, the president, the prime minister, the Supreme Judicial Council, or one-fifth of the Constituent Assembly have the right to contest any clause issued by the Constituent Assembly if “it is in opposition to the goals of the revolution or its basic principles… or the common principles of Egypt’s past constitutions.”
Egypt president inauguration end of June, says SCAF member
Egypt Independent, 6/18/2012
The inauguration of Egypt’s president will be held by the end of the month, Major General Mahmoud El-Assar, member of the ruling military council, said in a press conference Monday afternoon. The official results of the runoffs in the presidential elections, in which ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq stood against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, will be officially announced by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission on Thursday 21 June.
Parliament is not dissolved: Brotherhood People Assembly majority leader
Ahram Online, 6/18/2012
Hussein Ibrahim, majority leader of the People’s Assembly, while casting his vote at Magdi Bin Haleem School in the coastal city of Alexandria, told reporters “The People’s Assembly [the lower chamber of parliament] has not been dissolved, and the calling for our regular Tuesday meeting is still on.” Ibrahim then added that the Brotherhood will not “give in to a coup d’état,” and that the SCAF has to respect the 30 March constitutional declaration that “gave the authority of dissolving [parliament] not to the SCAF but to the people .”
SECURITY
Deadly violence on Israel’s Egypt, Gaza borders
Reuters, 6/18/2012
Militants who crossed into Israel from Egypt’s Sinai desert fired on Israelis building a barrier on the border on Monday, killing one worker, before soldiers shot dead two of the attackers, Israel’s military said. Hours later, an Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip killed two militants on a motorcycle. Islamic Jihad said they belonged to their group. The military said the strike was not linked to the incident on the border. The Sinai attack, launched soon after Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood declared victory in the country’s presidential election, raised Israeli concerns about lawlessness in the area since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
IDF tanks move closer to Egypt border
YNet, 6/18/2012
The IDF has deployed Armored forces near the Israel-Egypt border, moving tanks closer to the fence, Ynet has learned. The unusual move followed Monday’s terror attack on defense contractor crews building the new security fence. Ynet was able to document the presence of Israeli tanks in close proximity to the border – maneuvers which are barred by Jerusalem’s peace treaty with Cairo. Ynet’s chief military commentator Ron Ben Yishai noted that several months ago, Israel and Egypt arrived at an agreement by which Cairo would be able to deploy 20 tanks near the border, to ward off attacks by Bedouins on Egyptian forces, despite the fact that such a move contradicts the peace treaty. It is likely that the deal also allowed Israel to do the same in favor of increased protection for the area’s communities.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
For English text of SCAF amended Egypt Constitutional Declaration, click here. For Arabic, here