Hosni Mubarak in coma

Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was yesterday in a coma on life support at a Cairo hospital, sources said, as tension spiked over who will succeed him as president and moves by the ruling military to extend its powers.

He has been placed on an artificial respirator

The uncertainty over the health of the ousted leader comes amid new political upheaval, with both candidates in a presidential vote claiming victory and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) granting itself sweeping powers.

Mr Mubarak “is not clinically dead,” a medical source said. “He is in a coma and the doctors are trying to revive him.”

“He has been placed on an artificial respirator,” the source added, in an account confirmed by a member of Egypt’s ruling military council, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Egypt’s state TV carried a ticker item saying Mr Mubarak was in “a coma and is not clinically dead.”

State news agency Mena had earlier said the ousted strongman, 84, had been declared clinically dead after suffering a stroke in prison and being transferred to hospital.

“Hosni Mubarak is clinically dead,” the report said. “Medical sources told Mena his heart had stopped beating and did not respond to defibrillation.”

News of Mr Mubarak’s failing health came as Egypt wrapped up a presidential election runoff and faced “the most critical 48 hours in its history,” said the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.

The Muslim Brotherhood said in the early hours of Monday morning that their candidate, Mohamed Morsi, had won the runoff, and on Tuesday provided what they said were certified copies of ballot tallies to bolster their claims.

But Mr Morsi’s rival Ahmed Shafiq, Mr Mubarak’s last prime minister, has also claimed a victory, with his campaign accusing the Brotherhood of issuing false figures and insisting official results due out on Thursday will declare him president.

The electoral committee yesterday began to looking into the appeals filed by both sides, state television said.

A group of independent judges – headed by the ex-head of the Judges Union, Zakaria Abdel Aziz – who monitored the voting process confirmed in a news conference that Mr Morsi had won, according to their tally.

The new president, irrespective of the result, will not wield the near-absolute authority Mr Mubarak enjoyed for three decades, after SCAF issued a constitutional declaration on Sunday claiming sweeping powers.

Mr Mubarak’s successor will also inherit a struggling economy, increased insecurity and the challenge of uniting a nation divided by the uprising and its deadly aftermath.

Should Mr Mursi win, it will be a real test for the Muslim Brotherhood’s ability to deal with problems on the ground. The new dynamics will mean that “SCAF will command the national security of Egypt and leave domestic issue to the president. Any problems and the blame will be shifted to the elected representative,” said Joshua Stacher, a political analyst and Egypt expert at Kent State University.

The SCAF’s document said it would retake legislative powers from the Islamist-dominated parliament after the country’s constitutional court on Thursday ordered the body dissolved.

And it grants the military council veto power over the drafting of a permanent constitution, angering activists who denounced the declaration and an earlier order giving the army power to arrest civilians, as a “coup.”