Third place Egyptian presidential candidate calls for recount

CAIRO (AP) — The third runner-up in Egypt’s presidential race called Saturday for a partial vote recount, citing violations, his spokesman said.

Early results show that Hamdeen Sabahi came in third by a margin of some 700,000 votes, leaving him out of next month’s run-off between the two leading candidates.

Sabahi’s spokesman Hossam Mounis said the campaign has found evidence of many violations during the two days of voting that would affect the final results. He declined to give details about the violations but said appeals would be filed Sunday.

“The evidence we have and that we are still accumulating shows a big number of violations in many polling centers that would affect the final results,” he said.

Results from the first round of voting have shown that the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq will face each other in a June 16-17 runoff.

Those two candidates were the most polarizing in the field and the divisive showdown has dismayed many Egyptians who fear either one means an end to any democratic gains produced by last year’s uprising that ousted Mubarak.

The first round race, held Wednesday and Thursday, turned out close. By Friday evening, counts from stations around the country reported by the state news agency gave Morsi 25.3 percent and Shafiq 24.9 percent with less than 100,000 votes difference.

Sabahi narrowly came in third in a surprisingly strong showing of 21.5 percent, followed by a moderate Islamist who broke with the Brotherhood, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.