Complementation in the lattice of equivalence relations (Q1126181)

\textit{J. Steprans} and \textit{S. Watson} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 123, 2237-2249 (1995; Zbl 0831.54001)] proved that on uncountable sets there exist pairs of complementary equivalence relations which are maximal as families of mutually complementary equivalence relations. They also conjectured (in a preliminary version of the above article) that such pairs do not exist in the finite and in the countable case. In the present paper the authors provide negative answers to this conjecture in both cases.