Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi Wins Egyptian Presidential Election
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AFP/GettyImages(CAIRO) — Egypt’s election commission announced on Sunday that the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, had won the country’s first contested presidential election, making him the first Islamist president in the Arab world.
He defeated ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq by a margin of 4 percent, just shy of one million votes.
Tahrir Square, the birthplace of last year’s revolution that deposed Mubarak and the site of several large pro-Morsi demonstrations in recent days, exploded with jubilation. Tens of thousands had gathered to hear the results, which were followed by an ear-splitting cacophony of fireworks, horns and honking that continued for hours after they were released.
In his victory speech Sunday night, Morsi spoke at length about the historic nature of the election and calling for national unity.
“I’m your president, but not without you. I’m your president, but I’m not the best of you,” he said.
Egypt had been a pressure cooker since last weekend’s historic election, with both candidates declaring victory and speculation growing that despite a projected win for Morsi, Shafiq would be named the winner.
Fueling the tension, the ruling military council last Sunday released a constitutional declaration that dramatically reduced the power of the next president, a move that followed the dissolution of the freely-elected, Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament.
After a long preamble by the head of the Supreme Presidential Election Commission on Sunday, Morsi was declared the winner with 13.3 million votes to Shafiq’s 12.3 million. More than 840,000 ballots were voided.
Morsi was quickly congratulated by Field Marshall Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who has been ruling Egypt as head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) since Mubark was deposed last March. Soon after, he received the congratulations of Palestinian militant group Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The White House also issued a statement, saying it looked forward to working with Morsi “on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio