The Supreme Administrative Court decided on Saturday to refer Mortada Mansour’s parliamentary election case appeal to Egypt’s Court of Cassation, the country’s top court.
Mansour had filed the appeal against the National Election Authorities decision that he had indeed lost the Mit Ghamr parliamentary elections. Mansour had called for a recount of the ballots after he had lost.
The former Zamalek club president insisted in November he did not lose the House of Representatives elections, claiming fraud as official results placed him sixth in the election race in the Mit Ghamr constituency, Daqahliya Governorate.
During a video broadcast from his former office in the Zamalek club, the controversial public figure asserted that major fraud occurred in the elections, and that he had been in first place until the end of the vote counting process.
“I was the first with 10 thousand votes ahead from the closest competitor before counting a few boxes to the end, but what happened is absurd and I will not go into it now. I have more important things,” he said.
The Mit Ghamr constituency this year had 36 candidates competing for a seat in parliament.
In the appeal, filed by Mansour’s lawyer Khaled al-Berry, Berry asserts that the supporters of Mansour were not allowed to enter the Beshla village committees, and that attendance was restricted to supporters of candidate Ahmed al-Alfy.
The same situation reportedly played out in Sahrajt al-Kubra, Atmida and Dandeet, which is a blatant violation of the electoral process, the claim states.
In his appeal, Berry stated that the number of valid votes cast is not divisible by two, which confirms that there is clear fraud in favor of one of the candidates at another’s expense, in addition to excluding 5,000 votes in Sentimay, Dandeet, and Bashalush as they were counted as void.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
