Mubarak's death reported amid post election turmoil
By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
Cairo (dpa) - Egypt's rival presidential candidates both claimed victory on Tuesday as protesters gathered on Tahir square and security sources said former president Hosny Mubarak was clinically dead.
The dramatic deterioration of Mubarak's health - his status was the subject of conflicting reports - after being sentenced to life in prison accented the turmoil that followed weekend elections.
Islamists led thousands-strong protests in Tahrir Square against a decree by the military rulers granting themselves extra powers.
The campaign spokesman for former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq said he had won the presidential election, slamming an earlier, similar confirmation by the Muslim Brotherhood that their candidate Mohamed Morsi was the winner.
The election was the first following Mubarak's ouster in a popular revolt last year. Security sources told dpa that Mubarak was clinically dead after being transferred to a military hospital in Cairo.
Mubarak suffered a stroke earlier in the day and was moved to a military medical facility, Egyptian state media said. Earlier reports said doctors used a defibrillator to restart Mubarak's heart
after it stopped for a few seconds.
Official results of the elections are scheduled to be announced on Thursday by the election commission. But campaign officials of both candidates have been declaring victory since Monday.
Secular and leftist Egyptians fear that Morsi will seek to establish a religious state, in which the rights of liberals and minorities will be undermined.
Shafiq's critics, mainly the youth who led the uprising against Mubarak, see him as a remnant of the old regime. They have threatened a "second revolution" if he becomes president.
Shafiq's spokesman Ahmed Sarhan said that his candidate, who was Mubarak's last premier, won about half a million votes more than Morsi.
"General Ahmed Shafiq is the next president of Egypt," Sarhan told a press conference, to cheering from supporters.
Morsi's campaign reiterated Tuesday that they had won the presidency with 52 per cent of votes.
"We are talking based on official documents and facts," an official in Morsi's campaign told a press conference, referring to information gathered during counting by their monitors.
Tens of thousands of protesters started gathering Tuesday afternoon in central Cairo's Tahrir square, the focal point of the pro-democracy protests in January 2011. Thousands more were protesting in front of the nearby parliament building against a decree by the ruling junta dissolving the Islamist-led parliament.
In the northern city of Alexandria, thousands were also demonstrating against what they called “a soft coup.”
In Tahrir square, the Brotherhood lead chants of "Down with military rule." Others were carrying posters of Morsi. The opposition April 6 Youth Movement has also called on supporters to join the protests.
They called for protests after a new constitutional document was issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), allowing it to retain legislative powers and control the budget until a new parliament is elected. Also, unlike under Mubarak's rule, the president would not have any power to change the members of the military council.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center sent election monitors, said he was "deeply troubled by the undemocratic turn" in Egypt's transition.
"The dissolution of the democratically-elected parliament and the return of elements of martial law generated uncertainty about the constitutional process before the election," Carter said.
He said the moves by the Supreme Council violated "their prior commitment to the Egyptian people to make a full transfer of power to an elected civilian government."
The centre said its monitoring mission had faced obstacles, including late issuance of accreditation, a 30-minute time restriction on monitors' presence inside polling stations and their exclusion from watching the final aggregation of the results.
The Muslim Brotherhood condemned both decrees by the military council as unconstitutional.
SCAF took control of the country after Mubarak was forced to step down in February 2011. It has repeatedly vowed to hand over power to the elected president by the end of June.
SCAF has also has set up a National Defence Council to be led by the incoming president. It will deal with security and budget issues, and consist of 11 generals, three ministers, the prime minister and parliament speaker.
Meanwhile, an administrative court in Cairo has adjourned to September 1 a case against the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party, after a lawyer filed a lawsuit saying they were illegal.
Lawyer Shehata Mohammed Shehata argued that the Brotherhood is in breach of a law requiring civil organizations to register with the authorities and banning them from political activities.
The case could end in the dissolution of Egypt's oldest Islamist group, which was founded in 1928.
