Mubarak rival calls for election rerun

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak’s most prominent rival yesterday asked for a rerun of presidential elections on the grounds that abuses made the Wednesday vote invalid.

With Mr Mubarak reported to have taken more than 70% of the vote, Ayman Nour of the liberal Ghad (Tomorrow) Party also asked the Presidential Election Commission to delay its announcement of the result.

Mr Nour, a 40-year-old lawyer and member of parliament, is the best known of the nine party leaders who tried to stop Mr Mubarak, 77, winning a fifth six-year term.

The elections were Egypt’s first with more than one candidate and have enlivened political debate. Some observers said they were an improvement on Egyptian parliamentary elections, others said that many of the same abuses recurred.

Monitoring groups reported irregularities including ballot stuffing, vote buying, intimidation, abuse of government vehicles and discrimination in favour of Mr Mubarak.

Hafez Abu Seada, of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, said he would ask for an investigation into the violations.