Arabstoday investigates Morsi, Shafiq campaigns

Campaign posters supporting presidential candidates The campaigns of rival candidates Ahmed Shafiq and Mohammed Morsi in Egypt's presidential elections have escalated their war of words, with mutual accusations of publishing false results. Morsi, who belongs to the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said he won with 52 percent of the vote while Shafiq's campaign said he was leading by more than 250,000 votes.
The official results will only be announced by Egypt's Supreme Presidential Elections Committee (SPEC) this Thursday.
Shafiq's presidential campaign held a Thursday press conference at its headquarters in Cairo's Dokki district, where campaign officials challenged claims that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi had won Egypt's first post-Mubarak presidential election.
"Neither we, nor our rival's campaign, have the authority to announce final numbers, but our assumptions confirm that our candidate received 51 percent of the votes," Shafiq campaign official Karim Salem said.
"Our candidate asks you all to celebrate, but to remain peaceful," Salem added.
Salem blamed widespread reports of Mursi's victory on "fake results" propagated in the media.
Shafiq campaign officials also threatened to take legal action to prove their candidate's electoral victory, saying that they "would have remained silent were it not for the Morsi campaign's premature declarations of victory".
Arabstoday contacted both parties to find out the truth and requested evidence that would back their individual claims to victory.
A spokesman for Shafiq's campaign, Ahmed Sarhan, told Arabstoday that the former premier was leading by 200-250,000 votes, saying it did not make sense that Morsi held a press conference at 2am and then announced his victory just two hours later, barely six hours after counting had begun.
Sahran claimed that the results announced by the Brotherhood were false. He said that Morsi rushed to announce his version of the results early in a ploy to convince the public that he was the only legitimate winner, and any other "official" result would be fake.
"If Ahmed Shafiq is announced as Egypt's next president, they will accuse the vote of being rigged," he said.
The Shafiq spokesman said vote-counting had not yet finished and that 30 percent of the votes had still not been accounted for.
Moreover, an appeal on apparent election violations has still to be heard.
Sarhan also dismissed Muslim Brotherhood-led celebrations in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square.
On the other hand, Morsi's campaign spokesman, Murad Ali, said to Arabstoday: "These figures were announced based on records received from the judiciary, by sub-committees and general sources."
Murad added that whoever wanted to verify the results could visit the party's website for each governorate and check the listed percentages.
He countered claims by the Shafiq campaign by saying they were "untrue and had no basis in fact".
"I reject the threatening tone adopted by Shafiq's campaign...the election committee will announce Morsi as president," he said.
Morsi's campaign claims he is leading with 950,000 votes.
The Islamist leader has tried to allay fears that he will establish Islamic rule over the country, saying he will work towards establishing a civilian, democratic state that will supposedly be inclusive, even reaching out to Egypt's Copts, liberals and other minorities.
Shafiq's campaign is seen as one that promises stability, with many of his backers regarding his military background as instrumental in ending the chaos that has gripped the country since its 25 January revolution.