Ahmed Sarhan, spokesperson for Ahmed Shafiq's campaign, criticized Mohamed Morsy's campaign and the Muslim Brotherhood for announcing what they described as Morsy's conclusive win in the presidential election. Sarhan described the ongoing festivities celebrating Morsy as a way to force a premature victory for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Morsy's campaign had announced at a press conference held early Monday morning that Morsy won the election after 99 percent of the votes had been counted. The Presidential Elections Commission is expected to announce the official results of the second round of the vote on Thursday. In several messages on Twitter, Sarhan said, “The next time, the candidate who wakes up earlier in the morning than the other might as well hold a press conference and declare himself president...Morsy and the Brotherhood's actions are entirely irresponsible.” He added that the Brotherhood's announcement will spark clashes between supporters of Shafiq and Morsy if the official result puts Shafiq ahead. He said that the celebrations in the streets are intended to set a certain mood that will make the people reject a potential victory for Shafiq and raise suspicions of rigging if a different result is announced on Thursday. He added that certain legal procedures have not yet been completed, including concluding the vote counting process and examining challenges to the elections result. Sarhan cited Omar Salama, spokesperson for the Presidential Elections Commission, as saying that the commission is not responsible for any announcements made by Morsy and his campaign. He added that never has a candidate in any civilized country of the world announced his victory in such a “gross” way before 20 percent of the polling stations had finished counting. He said there is a very narrow difference between the number of votes for each candidate, and therefore it would be quite easy for Shafiq's supporters to also announce his victory and take to the streets to celebrate. He said the Brotherhood is trying to win the presidency to compensate for the dissolution of Parliament. The Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of Parliament, which had an Islamist majority, due to the unconstitutionality of the Parliamentary Elections Law.
