Islamist, Mubarak Crony Enter Runoff Election for Egyptian President
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Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images(CAIRO) — With the results released Monday, no one received at least 50 percent of the vote in Egypt’s presidential election last week, meaning that Mohamed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq are the two candidates on the ballot in the runoff to be held on June 16 and 17.
Mursi is the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic religious bloc, while Shafiq was a former prime minister under the previous president, Hosni Mubarak, whose three decades of authoritarian rule ended in February 2011 following a revolution that came to be known as the Arab Spring.
This leaves former foreign minister Amr Moussa out of the running. Pre-election polls expected him to finish in the top two in the first round of voting.
However, Moussa came in fifth, leaving an obvious bitter taste in his mouth. He vowed on Monday not to support either of the finalists.
According to Moussa, the Muslim Brotherhood is “using religion to mislead Egyptians, who are proving to be more aware.”
He also denounced Shafiq’s candidacy as a return to the old Mubarak regime, which most Egyptians found unacceptable.
There was some excitement later Monday as Shafiq’s campaign headquarters in Cairo was burned down by protesters, bolstering his argument for greater security on the streets.
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