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Subscribe to RSSProtesters in Egypt's Tahrir Square are suspicious of official statements regarding the health of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak. An electoral commission has said it will not announce the result of Egypt's presidential election until Thursday. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Egypt's elections authorities say they will delay announcing who won Egypt's presidential election but have not given a new date.
The Supreme Elections Commission said in a statement Wednesday that results won't be announced on Thursday as scheduled because the commission is looking into complaints presented by rival candidates.
A panel of judges must examine some 400 complaints over voting submitted by both Ahmed Shafiq, ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's prime minister, and the campaign of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi.
Amid reports that Hosni Mubarak is clinically dead, the Muslim Brotherhood thinks it won the Egypt elections and now wants full power. But the campaign of Ahmed Shafiq, ousted President Mubarak's old prime minister, said he really won the elections. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
"We cannot announce when exactly the timing of the announcement of the election results will be because now we are at the stage of listening to the representatives," Committee Secretary-General Hatem Bagato told Reuters.
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak reportedly clinging to life in military hospital
"The committee will meet afterwards to decide on whether to accept the appeals or not. After that there will be a time set to announce the final result," Bagato added, speaking by phone.
He issued an official statement later in the day with more detail.
"The committee has decided to continue to examine the appeals, which involves looking at records and logs related to the electoral process, and this will necessitate more time before announcing the final results," the statement said.
The instability in Egypt poses a dilemma for the United States. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Any lengthy delay in disclosing the results risks prolonging uncertainty and stoking tension at a time when it is unclear how big a role the military will continue to play in leading the country. No official figures have been announced, but candidates had representatives at polling stations and were able to make their own tallies.
"We must give both sides all the time they need to ensure that the process is fair and prevent any claims later on that not enough time was given to both sides," Bagato explained.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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What a mess. I hope for the Egyptian people this has a good outcome and they haven't replaced one dictatorship with another.
Exactly, and if you don't choose the Muslim Brotherhood candidate the same thing will happen. Egypt is certainly in a pickle now.
No matter what the outcome of the election they will have replaced one dictatorship with another. The only question now is will it be another secular dictatorship controlled largely by the military or will be it an Islamic dictatorship controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. If the MB is allowed to gain control, there is no way that they will ever risk losing that control by allowing fair elections in the future. They already demonstrated that when the MB controlled parliament tried to remove Shafiq from the run-off election by passing a law that no members of the former government can hold positions in the new government. The MB would restrict who could run in future elections so as to ensure that only candidates favorable to the MB could run. The country is far better off under a relatively benign secular dictatorship controlled by the military than under an Islamic republic controlled by the MB under which the rights of women will almost completely disappear along with the rights of anyone who does not follow their prescribed version of Islam.
JS in SD, I bow to your knowledge of the subject. Refreshing to read someone who actually understands the situation.
Keep up the good work and please ad me to your friends list.
I've rarely heard something more dumb. It would appear that several million Egyptians disagree with both of us, as they started a revolution. The army obviously doesn't like it, and that is a serious problem.
As far as the MB restricting who could run in future elections, we do that in the US, too. It's called gerrymandering. And yet we manage to elect people anyway.
I have to agree with JSinSD that Egypt is in a no win situation. The lesser of two evils at this point would be the MB winning because nobody there (or anywhere) is going to believe the old guard won. Reading the heading before going to the ad gave the the premonition that the old guard is setting up their strategy and defenses prior to releasing their predetermined outcome. Seems to be a common ploy by tyrants running farce elections to appease the public, especially when the election is obviously never in doubt and the ruling tyrant would lose, as is the case here. (although the tyrant isn't ruling...yet). MB is NOT a GOOD alternative, but if they lose, there's no telling how high the inferno or for how long it would burn as Egypt becomes a hotbed of political turmoil. Not a good situation either way, but that would definitely be the short term worse case scenario.
Byron, your "who can run" thing about here is a dead on shot. That is the subject OUR tyrants don't WANT fixed, but should be our priority. But what he said is NOT dumb. Nor is your comment. Things are gonna suck in Egypt for a long time. There isn't a GOOD choice.
The most important thing is that Egypt must be able to have fair elections every so many years. The Muslim Brotherhood isn't as extreme as it used to be, and their candidate has pledged not to implement Sharia (obviously we don't trust that though). The army has pledged to give up their power as soon as possible, which may be never (look what happened in Thailand--their military coup was quick and bloodless and it still took years before elections started again).
Whatever happens, Egyptians will suffer.
The mentally ill should not be allowed to run for office or vote in elections. Anyone who believes in the Bronze Age Superstitions of Middle Eastern savages is mentally ill.
Meanwhile, Shafiq believes in "one man, one vote". He's the man, his vote is the one that counts.
Who gets to determine who is mentally ill?
Just say Shafiq won. End of story
Deleted, mispost.
Please see the fallowing link
What i learned from my visit to India
ooppps a wrong blog sorry freinds
JS your comments get to the heart of the matter.A secular dictatorship is a hundred times more desirable than a religious nazi like true believer sharia jihad and even terrorist regime. As for Byron Raum your comments show a complete lack of reality.Comparing the government in the U.S with a government of the Muslim Bro is so ridiculous that you must qualify for the booby prize in absurd and ridiculous statements!
Bart you are most likely right for the long term situation, and we should let their chips fall where they may. Since our leaders can't seem to let these groups work out for themselves, maybe the MB winning will keep our noses out of it. Yet you're comment is very true otherwise. Again, a no win situation for any with many twists and a long road through hell is all I see for them either way.
kind of like you can be boiled in oil or skinned. but on a much more positive note, apparently Mubarak has made some kind of miracle recovery after having been dead for the last 24 hours.
Well yeah, takes time to falsify the results. They only have two guys writing X's in the back of the kitchen.
Secular Junta (term for a Military government) is much more preferred to an Islamic theocracy. Junta's can be reasoned with and tend to be run by people who actually care for their country, even if their brutal. Theocracy's can't be reasoned with and control their people with fear and hate. Nothing good has ever come out of a Theocracy, the Christian Theocracy of Europe plunged them into several centuries of ignorance, hate, strife and chaos known was the dark ages. The Islamic Theocracy's weren't much better and to this day still seek to create fear, hate and strife.
Both picks are a bad idea, the people lose.
hmmm... after the doctored video of mitt romney I don't think I can rely on anything MSNBC reports as news.
Unfortunately civil wars are the best thing for Islamic countries. It's what the rational world considers a "win win" situation.
Of course the Obama Administration "is warning the Egyptian Military not to steal the election". Why? Because Obama wants an international terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to be in charge. In fact, with Obama's helping the MB, the MB is quickly becoming the largest terrorist organization in the entire Muslim World. Besides Egypt, the MB have seen it's influence increase in Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, etc. But the 2nd biggest gain for the MB will be when they take over Syria as well.
Dropping back a little, Obama knows more about the Muslim philosophy than any other president we have had. Obama grew up eating, playing, going to school with Muslims. BHO even practiced the Muslim Region in Mosques. The point is BHO knows what the Muslim philosophy is all about. He knows Allah is to be feared. Unlike all the other religions on earth where god is to be loved. BHO knows that in the 1400 years the Muslim religion has been around, only the strong have ruled. That is why Obama really supported the purported "Arab Spring". BHO knew full well that neither Egypt or, Libya or, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, etc., would ever see a true democratic form of government. However, by backing the MB, BHO does know full well that another war will occur between Israel and the Arab world.
Godfathers within the Egyptian Brotherhood can be pacified but their price is high, they demand control of the pyramid tourist industry and Suez Canal. The military should meet their demands as long as it can keep the 2 billion in American aid.