Sources close to the ruling military council say the generals are ready to make bold moves and then play it by ear; the Brotherhood sources say SCAF has options but they are also ready to dig in against the generals In Cairo, on Friday morning, government sources were in consensus that Ahmed Sahfiq, the last premier of ousted-jailed president Hosni Mubarak, will be announced the first post-Mubarak president. A limited margin of victory of less than one per cent was predicted by the sources who come from different government quarters, including the security camp, and who all insisted to speak on condition of anonymity. However, in the Muslim Brotherhood and its camp of allies, another account was offered by our sources there: Mohamed Morsi, leader of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Brotherhood, is the effective winner of the presidential; runoffs according to official documents obtained by the FJP electoral machinery – and anything else amounts to forgery that would be "peacefully, but firmly" refuted. The FJP leader was confident enough of his victory – and even of its upcoming announcement in less than 48 hours, according to a member of his campaign – to the point that he is already in the business of recruiting members of his administration. "He is already talking to independent political figures to solicit their views on the roadmap for the future and to ask them to join a wide presidential council (of around 15 members) that he intends to establish and the government," our Brotherhood source said. Meanwhile, other scenarios were being proposed by legal and political figures who have a close association with the ruling Supreme Council for Armed Forces (SCAF). One scenario, according to a legal advisor to the council, is to go along with the announcement of the winning president – be it Shafiq or Morsi – and then to see how things would develop. "Should there bewide unrest, then SCAF could take over and construct a military-civil board to run the countries affairs pending the drafting of a constitution and then call for the election of a president and a parliament," the SCAF adviser told Ahram Online. The same source added that at any event the next president would probably have to step down once a constitution is drafted, unless the drafting committee included the final text with a provisional article to allow for the president to keep his mandate. "But given that the next president whether Shafik or Morsi, I don't know which one, would come with a very small margin of victory then it is unlikely that this article will be included," the source added. There is also another possibility that the same source spoke of, though with more caution: the SCAF could annul the elections altogether. This, he adds, runs counter to "a clear wish that the SCAF still has which is to transfer power on1 July". "This is very important for them; they want to honour the word they gave". SCAF is also, according to this and other sources, really opposed to the recently floated idea of establishing a civil or a civil-military council to run the state affars pending the drafting of a new constitution and the subsequent election of a new parliament and a new president. This scenario seems to be the least likely of all the scenarios according to our government sources. Less likely scenarios, meanwhile, include a call by the electoral body to re-do elections in some polling stations or to re-do the second round of the presidential elections entirely. Sources at the campaign of the Brotherhood's Morsi admitted to Ahram Online these two scenarios are real possibilities. However, leaks on Shafiq's victory are simply pressure designs to get the Brotherhood to compromise, say our FJP soruces. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/45895.aspx
