Hosni Mubarak swept more than 80% of the vote in an unprecedented pluralist presidential election hailed as an historic step but marred by violations, according to an early count published on Friday.
The incumbent’s landslide victory left his nine rivals fighting over crumbs, with most estimates giving Ghad party leader Ayman Nur over Wafd chairperson Numan Gumaa.
”According to unofficial estimates, the National Democratic Party obtained between 82 and 84% of the vote,” the state-owned Al-Gomhuria said.
The estimates were based on unofficial results from most of Egypt’s 26 governorates. Official results were expected to be released either late Friday or on Saturday.
Electoral commission secretary general Osama Attawiya said that he could not confirm these estimates, which he said were based on ”figures compiled by party delegates”.
Mubarak had last been re-elected in 1999 with 93% of the vote but it was under the referendum system where Egyptians could only say yes or no to a single Parliament-nominated candidate.
According to the top-selling Al-Ahram newspaper, Mubarak obtained 75% of the vote in the Alexandria governorate, Nur 16% and Gumaa eight percent.
In other provinces, the ”rais” swept nearly all the vote, with 98% in Aswan, 92% in Fayyum and 93% in his native Menufiya province, the state-owned daily said.
A victory for the 77-year-old leader — who has been dubbed the ”last pharaoh” and has ruled over Egypt for 24 years — was a foregone conclusion and the most significant result could be the turnout.
The independent Al-Masri Al-Yom daily said turnout could reach 35% but there no estimates in state-owned newspapers.
Nur filed a complaint on Thursday demanding an election rerun based on irregularities observed by his party delegates across the country but the electoral commission rejected his request.
Other parties have also alleged widespread abuses by members of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party.
Forced voting, paid voters, unmanned polling stations, missing indelible ink and the use of public transport to ferry voters to polling stations were some of the accusations levelled against Mubarak supporters on election day.
But the electoral commission was pleased with the polling process and many observers, whilst acknowledging some irregularities, took heart in the fact that Egypt’s first brush with democracy passed without any major incidents.
But Boutros Boutros Ghali, a former foreign minister and UN secretary general, insisted the climate of the election had been generally positive.
”The electoral process proceeded normally and no intervention by the security in the voting process in a way that undermined the freedom of voters or secrecy of the voting was observed,” he said in a preliminary report on the poll.
Opposition parties warned that most of the fraud could take place during the vote-counting process, which monitors have warned does not guarantee transparency.
The United States, which put pressure on Mubarak to clear the way for contested elections, welcomed the vote but said it should only be the beginning.
Mubarak ”made promises to the Egyptian people. And we would expect that he follow through on those promises, one of which is the lifting of the state of emergency,” said state department spokesperson Sean McCormack.
Egypt has tipped its first ever contested presidential election as major step in democratising the region.
The three-week presidential campaign introduced a new tone in the Egyptian political debate, with editorialists, cartoonists, opposition activists and ordinary Egyptians for the first time directly challenging Mubarak. – AFP
