Egypt Confirms Mursi, Shafik to Contest Presidential Runoff

Egypt’s presidential election will be
decided by a run-off between the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate
and Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, official results today
confirmed.

The Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi won 5.76 million out of
23.3 million valid votes in last week’s first round, followed by
Ahmed Shafik, who was appointed as premier in Mubarak’s final
days, with 5.5 million, elections commission head Farouk Soultan
told reporters at a televised press conference in Cairo. Hamdeen
Sabahi, a socialist who espouses the nationalism of former
President Gamal Abdel Nasser, came third with 4.82 million
votes. Turnout was 46.4 percent, Soultan said.

The results pit two of the most divisive candidates in the
race against each other, fuelling political tensions that have
built up since Mubarak’s ouster last year and leaving Egyptians
with a choice between a secular candidate with ties to the old
regime and an Islamist. The vote was billed as the freest and
fairest in the country’s history.

“You are limited to only two choices: either back to the
old regime represented by Ahmed Shafik, which is as if the
revolution hasn’t even happened, or you have to vote for the
Brotherhood, who already won the parliamentary election and now
would have all powers in their hands,” said Mona Mansour, co-
head of research at CI Capital. “It’s negative on the market
sentiment, investment sentiment.”

‘Defeat’ for Revolution

Egypt’s benchmark stock index has slid 4.7 percent to a
six-week low in the two trading days since the vote.

Islamists and many of the youths who led the anti-Mubarak
uprising decry Shafik’s links to the old regime and say he will
try to reproduce it. At the same time, secular and other groups
have accused the Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power and
promote more conservative Islamic laws. The group’s Freedom and
Justice Party makes up the largest bloc in parliament.

“The election represents a definite defeat for the
revolutionary camp,” Mustapha K. al-Sayyid, a professor of
political science at Cairo University wrote today in Al Shorouk
newspaper.

Since initial results put them in the lead, both Shafik and
Mursi have courted

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-28/egypt-confirms-mursi-shafik-to-contest-presidential-runoff

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Posted by RobertButler on May 28 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry