A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Election Results: Oh, Maybe by the Weekend

It's Wednesday. Ahram Online (website of a government paper)  published a vote count  early Monday. Both political candidates have vote counts (though they claim to show different results). So why did we first have to wait until Thursday for the electoral commission to tell us officially who won the Egyptian Presidency? And why, now, with rumors rampant and talk of military vehicle movements, has the announcement been delayed until (in sha' Allah) the weekend

Officially, the reason is more time is needed to investigate complaints, but they usually release results first and investigate later. Rumors of military movements aimed at clamping down hard if a Shafiq win is announced and the Brotherhood erupts, and the like, have been rampant. This just fuels the fire of conspiracy theories. Do they need more time to cook the results because they aren't quite done yet?

Maybe it's all above board, but it looks suspicious as hell.

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