The Supreme Elections Committee will look into former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's appeal to challenge the results of the 2012 presidential elections on Tuesday. Shafiq's lawyer Shawqi Al-Sayed had appealed to challenge the results on 21 May and asked the commission to look into the case as soon as possible and declare the results as invalid, according to Aswat Masriya. "There was systematic fraud in the [2012] presidential elections," claimed Mohamed Abu Hamed, former head of the Free Egyptians Party (FEP) parliamentary division, adding that entire Christian villages in Upper Egypt were kept from reaching voting polls. Abu Hamed added that he had also appealed to challenge the election results, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of forging electoral books. He went on to say that the case "is considered support for the 30 June protests," which are aimed at toppling the legitimacy of President Mohamed Morsi. "The case will most likely be postponed," said Emad Gad, vice chairman of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP), adding that such cases usually take more than one session for the verdict to be decided. After the release of news of the appeal, Shafiq said in an interview that he had only recently obtained documents proving the elections were fraudulent, which is why it took him nearly a year to appeal. Hatem Azzam, vice chairman of Al-Wasat Party, said during the Conscience Front press conference on Saturday that the Supreme Elections Committee is unconstitutional according to the latest constitution, which was passed on 25 December. Azzam added that he considers 30 June protests "a counterrevolution to the 25 January Revolution."
