Egypt's Supreme Presidential Elections Commission (SPEC) announced on Wednesday evening that it would require extra time to examine appeals filed by the campaigns of both presidential candidates, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and last Mubarak-era PM Ahmed Shafiq. Final results of Egypt's hotly-contested presidential runoff, therefore, will likely be announced on Saturday or Sunday, according to SPEC Secretary-General Hatem Bagato. "Egypt's presidential election commission, headed by Judge Farouq Sultan... has decided to delay the announcement of the presidential election runoff," Egypt's official MENA news agency stated. Announcement of final results had originally been scheduled for Thursday, according to an official timeline laid down by the SPEC. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the SPEC said that it had gone over the roughly 400 appeals filed by both presidential campaigns. The SPEC also said it had heard lawyers for both candidates for almost five hours each. According to the statement, the main appeal has to do with alleged inconsistencies between the number of ballots and the number of voters registered at polling stations. This, the SPEC noted, could be the result of voters casting more than one ballot or by the fact that some voter lists contained the names of deceased citizens.
