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Egypt's Election Commission confirms that next month's runoff election will be between a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and a former top official of the deposed Mubarak administration
May 28, 2012
CAIRO, Egypt (AWR) – Egyptian authorities have officially announced that former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi will compete in a run-off vote scheduled for June 16-17.
The results of the first round announced Monday by the Presidential Election Commission had Mursi gaining 24.8 percent of the vote, with Shafiq receiving 23.7 percent. A favorite of many liberal revolutionaries, Hamdeen Sabbahi, was third at nearly 20.7 percent.
Overall turnout was 46 percent, which was down considerably from the turnout in Egypt's parliamentary elections earlier this year, when 62 percent of eligible voters cast votes.
The elections were widely considered Egypt's freest and most transparent in decades, although there have been numerous reports of voter irregularities and electoral violations. One candidate, moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, has already rejected the results outright.
But the Egypt Indpendent reports that authorities have recounted all the votes and rejected appeals by four leading candidates who complained of voter fraud.
The results are disappointing to many of the young liberal revolutionaries who view Shafiq as a return to Mubarak-style authoritarian leadership.
Many Christians and others fear that the Muslim Brotherhood, which already solidly controls parliament, will use its power to impose Islamic law on Egypt.
In this week's newsletter, AWR researcher Jayson Casper discusses the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammad Morsi, and his recently "clarified" position on conversion from Islam.
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