ELEANOR HALL: Protestors torched the headquarters of one of Egypt’s leading presidential candidates overnight, as the official announcement of the results of the first round of presidential voting stoked tensions in the country. Egypt’s electoral authority says of the 13 candidates, two will face a run-off vote next month.
One is the highly controversial establishment politician Ahmed Shafiq, who was the final prime minister appointed by the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak; the other is Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Lexi Metherell has our report.
LEXI METHERELL: After checking vote counts and rejecting appeals, the head of Egypt’s election committee, Farouq Sultan, confirmed the results.
FAROUQ SULTAN (translation): No candidate received a majority of the vote in order to win outright, so the run-off according to the electoral roll will be between Dr Mohamed Morsi and Dr Ahmed Shafiq, because they were the two top winners.
LEXI METHERELL: Ahmed Shafiq was the last prime minister of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. He was prime minister when Mubarak forces stormed Tahrir Square last year and killed and wounded protestors. He will face off against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi in the run-off next month. It’s possibly the worst outcome for the revolutionaries who overthrew Mubarak. The protestors didn’t form a cohesive party in time for the presidential elections and now Egyptians are forced to choose between Mr Morsi, a conservative Islamist, or Mr Shafiq, a symbol of a despised regime.
The head of the Middle East programme at the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, Dr Omar Ashour, says the liberal vote was split.
OMAR ASHOUR: The two candidates that stood in the middle who more or less represented the revolution, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and Hamdeen Sabahi, got around 10 million votes. In general the Egyptian voters voted revolution, they voted for revolution by 16 million votes, but however this 16 million were divided on seven or eight candidates and that’s why you have the situation right now.
But I think what will happen is that most of the revolutionaries will looking for some guarantees from the Muslim brothers that they don’t turn Egypt into an Islamist state, that they do not turn into an authoritarian power in Egypt and if the Muslim Brothers gave those guarantees and became more inclusive, I think we’ll be looking more the support from the revolutionary forces. The revolutionary forces do not trust Ahmed Shafiq, there is this saying in Egypt; we don’t trust the brothers but we have blood with Ahmed Shafiq.
LEXI METHERELL: Many Egyptians are stunned that a former Mubarak era politician stands a chance of being elected and tensions are spilling over. Ahmed Shafiq’s campaign headquarters in Cairo were set alight and ransacked by protesters.
And thousands flocked to Tahrir Square. One of them, Omar Kamel, says they don’t want either candidate.
OMAR KAMEL: A lot of people are very unhappy about what’s been going on with the elections. They basically feel that the army have cornered them in a situation where they need to choose between the Muslim Brotherhood and the old regime and they’re not happy.
They feel they’re being manipulated into a bad place, basically between a rock and a hard place. They don’t like either choice. There’s lots of very, very angry sentiment towards the fact that somehow Shafiq has made it to the second round and they’re also pissed off, they’re also angry sorry, about Morsi.
People are generally saying we don’t want Shafiq and we don’t want Morsi.
LEXI METHERELL: Voter turnout was low – only 46 per cent of Egypt’s eligible voters cast a ballot. Some boycotted the first round voting, claiming the election was illegitimate and manipulated by the military.
The election committee’s Farouq Sultan rejected complaints of malpractice.
FAROUQ SULTAN (translation): The commission did not listen to the rumours and claims and trivial allegations that some have tried to use. It does not stoop to any confrontation or tension, it rose above all that based on the law that stipulates the commission’s work, and the commission is responding with its deeds.
LEXI METHERELL: Both candidates are now targeting the liberal vote ahead of the run-off election on the 16th of June.