Fear came upon the neighbors of Elizabeth and Zechariah at the birth of John the Baptist as they tried to understand the import of the signs that accompanied the event. In the wake of a delay in official results in the first free presidential vote since the ouster of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak 16 months ago, Egyptians nervously tried to understand the actions of the ruling military elite, the former prime minister, and the Muslim Brotherhood in what has become a chess game for power in the post-Mubarak era.

Allegations of fraud delayed the result of Egypt’s presidential election on Thursday, fraying nerves as the Muslim Brotherhood, which claimed victory, threatened to take to the streets in protest at moves by the ruling generals to deny them power. Thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, cauldron of the revolution that overthrew Mubarak, to demand the officers who pushed him aside keep their word and hand over power to civilians by July 1.

Adding to a sense of unease, Mubarak was himself back in the news. He was let out of the prison, where he began a life sentence this month, for treatment at a military hospital where the 84-year-old was said by security sources to be slipping in and out of a coma but “stabilizing.” Many Egyptians suspect fellow generals of exaggerating to get their old comrade out of jail.

With Egypt’s economy suffering from prolonged uncertainty, Ahmed Shafik, the former general and Mubarak prime minister running against the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy, called for national unity, suggesting the losing candidate might serve in the winner’s administration.

The state election committee has spent three days collating counts from the two-day runoff ballot but said it would miss a target of Thursday for announcing the result because it was going through hundreds of complaints submitted by both sides. As the weekend starts on Friday, that may mean a wait until Sunday.

In a nation where vote-rigging was the norm during 60 years of military rule, and which is reeling from what critics called a “soft coup” by the generals in the past week, the delay has poured fuel on raging mutual suspicions of foul play.

Whoever is declared the winner, the next president’s powers have already been curbed in a last-minute decree issued by the army after it ordered the Islamist-led parliament dissolved. The European Union on Wednesday joined the United States, both major aid donors, in expressing “concern” at what the army moves meant for a promised transition to democracy, but with the Egyptian army still—as it was throughout Mubarak’s 30 years in power—a major ally in the confrontation with militant Islam, Western pressure on Cairo’s generals may be limited.

Sources: Articles by Alastair Macdonald for Reuters and Maza Nedawi for the Associated Press