“An Egyptian official told me in person that the army rigged the presidential elections in June 2012, fearing widespread riots should the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsi win,” according to former left-wing Meretz party leader Yossi Beilin, writing in his column for the Israel HaYom newspaper.
He said his source asked to remain anonymous but divulged that the true winner of last year’s election was Ahmed Shafik, the former air force commander and former president Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.
The official results gave Morsi a narrow 3.46 percent margin of victory over Shafik. Beilin wrote that the numbers are correct, but the names of the winner and loser are backwards.
He added that Morsi tried running the country with hapless aides instead of accepting help from the military, far more experienced in managing the government.
The same source told Beilin that Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who now rules Egypt, did not expect that the heavy casualties that resulted in clashes with supporters from Morsi but that Sissi was determined to clear the public streets of the demonstrators and not let them return.