[ 2012-05-26 ]

Islamists, ex-PM reach out to rivals after Egypt vote
CAIRO (AFP) - The apparent winners of the first
round of Egypt's first free presidential election
- one from the Muslim Brotherhood and one Hosni
Mubarak's last premier - were reaching out to the
losing candidates on Saturday ahead of a June
run-off.

Final votes were still being counted, but
unofficial results suggested that the top two
vote-getters out of 12 candidates were the
Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq, a
holdover from the regime of ousted president
Mubarak.

On Friday night, the Brotherhood said it was
seeking to create a coalition of forces to
challenge Shafiq, reaching out to Mursi's former
rivals, including Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, who
left the organisation to run for president.

The Brotherhood was reportedly seeking a meeting
with rivals on Saturday afternoon, though it was
not initially clear who might attend.

"We call on all sincere political and national
forces to unite to protect the revolution and to
achieve the pledges we took before our great
nation," the Brotherhood said.

"The slogan now is: 'the nation is in danger,'"
Essam al-Erian, the deputy head of the
Brotherhood's political arm, told AFP.

Shafiq too said he would seek broad support from
former rivals, calling on each of his competitors
by name to join him.

"I reach out to all the partners and I pledge that
we would all work together for the good of Egypt,"
he told a press conference on Saturday.

Addressing the youth that spearheaded the 2011
revolt, he said: "your revolution has been
hijacked and I am committed to bringing (it)
back," in an apparent reference to the Muslim
Brotherhood, which already controls parliament.

"I pledge now, to all Egyptians, we shall start a
new era. There is no going back."

A Shafiq-Mursi run-off looks likely further
polarise a nation that rose up against the
authoritarian Mubarak 15 months ago but has since
suffered endemic violence and a declining
economy.

The contest presents a difficult choice for
activists who led the revolt against Mubarak. For
them, choosing Shafiq would be to admit the
revolution had failed, but a vote for Mursi would
threaten the very freedoms they fought for.

Prominent activist and blogger Omar Kamel wrote:
"Do we deliver Egypt to a representative of the
old regime, as though nothing had happened, no
revolution had taken place, or do we satisfy the
(Brotherhood)'s greed for power, and give them all
but complete control of the country and risk the
fate of the revolution to satisfy their
ambitions?"

Independent analyst Hisham Kassem said the
situation "is one of the most difficult political
situations that Egypt has ever known."

"We face the risk of maintaining the Mubarak
regime, or Islamising the country," he told AFP.

Independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm said: "The
moment of truth. Post-revolution Egypt chooses
between the Brotherhood and the General," a
reference to Shafiq's days in the air force.

The electoral commission is expected to declare
the official results on Tuesday, but tallies
provided by the official MENA news agency and
Al-Ahram newspaper showed Mursi in first place and
Shafiq in second.

And Erian said Friday it was "completely clear"
that Mursi and Shafiq had topped the presidential
vote and would compete in the June 16-17 run-off.

He said Mursi had won 25.3 percent of the vote and
Shafiq 24 percent, with pan-Arab socialist Hamdeen
Sabahi at 22 percent.

Both Mursi and Shafiq had been written off as long
shots just weeks before the historic election in
which the country freely voted for the first time
to elect a president after Mubarak's ouster in a
democratic uprising.

And Shafiq's success appeared to have shaken the
influential Islamist movement, which won
parliamentary and senate elections held last
winter.

The election, which saw 50 million eligible voters
given the chance to choose, was hailed by US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who
congratulated Egypt on its "historic" presidential
election and said Washington was ready to work
with a new government in Cairo.

Electoral commission officials said turnout was
around 50 percent over the two days of voting.

The election follows a tumultuous military-led
transition from autocratic rule marked by
political upheaval and bloodshed, but which also
witnessed free parliamentary elections.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in power
since Mubarak's ouster, has vowed to restore
civilian rule by the end of June, after a
president is elected, but many fear its withdrawal
from politics will be just an illusion.

Source - AFP

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