Azernews.Az

Egypt`s election committee on Sunday considered complaints about a presidential poll that has left voters with what many see as a painful run-off choice between an Islamist apparatchik and a throwback to Hosni Mubarak`s era.

Both contenders are seeking to lay claim to the mantle of the ``revolution`` that toppled Mubarak 15 months ago, and to appeal to the many Egyptians who picked more centrist figures in last week`s first round.

Hatem Bagato, the secretary-general of the electoral committee, said it was investigating complaints about the voting filed by four candidates - second-placed Ahmed Shafiq, who was Mubarak`s last prime minister, leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

``The (election) results will be announced on Monday or Tuesday at the latest,`` Bagato told Reuters by telephone.

Figures cited by state media and party campaigns put Mohamed Mursi, a colourless Brotherhood insider, in a run-off with Shafiq, a bluff ex-air force chief who has sworn to restore security.

But Sabahy, who came a close third, challenged his placing. ``We have information that conscripts voted illegally,`` he told a raucous crowd of supporters in Cairo late on Saturday.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said he was broadly confident about the process. But his Carter Center monitors highlighted several irregularities, notably lack of access in the final aggregation of national results, harming transparency.

The polarised outcome has even led to suggestions from a range of liberal and other politicians - swiftly rejected by the Brotherhood - that Mursi should withdraw to allow Sabahy to go through to the second round.

``This is unconstitutional,`` Essam el-Erian, a leader of the Brotherhood`s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said, adding that if Mursi quit at this stage, Shafiq would win by default.

An FJP source said the Brotherhood believed vote-rigging had helped Shafiq qualify for the second round, but that it had decided not to complain for fear the election might be invalidated and that a re-run might endanger Mursi`s chances.

The source, who asked not to be named, said he believed this was a mistake, because it meant the Brotherhood was failing to show solidarity with other parties and that it would have no credibility if it appealed later against the result of the run-off.