Egypt: Election commission to look into complaints

Cairo - Egypt's official news agency says an election commission will look into complaints by presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq alleging irregularities and forgery in last year's vote, which he narrowly lost.

The Presidential Election Commission made its decision on Saturday to reopen investigation into Egypt's first freely contested presidential election, held last summer, in which Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood scraped in ahead of Shafiq. Shafiq, a Mubarak-era prime minister, is in self-exile in United Arab Emirates. In Egypt he is being tried in absentia on corruption-related charges, which he says are politicised.

Earlier, Shafiq had complained that some ballots were forged, invisible ink was used during voting, and some Christians were prevented from casting ballots. He said the incidents favoured Morsi.

The commission had earlier dismissed the same complaints from Shafiq.