Egypt’s electoral commission on Monday confirmed that Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammed Mursi would face Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, in a June presidential run-off.
The electoral commission, in a televised news conference, said the turnout was 46.2 percent in the first round of the vote.
Farouq Sultan, president of the electoral commission, announced the turnout figures at a news conference, in the first official indication of how many people had voted in the first round of the historic election.
Sultan said: “No candidate won an outright majority, so according to Article 40 of the presidential election law, there will be a run-off between Mursi and Shafiq.”
Sultan said Mursi had won 5,764,952 votes, slightly ahead of Shafiq with 5,505,327.
Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi was in third place with more than 4.8 million votes, ahead of moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh with 4.05 million.
Former foreign minister Amr Mussa came fifth, trailing with 2.58 million votes, Sultan said.
The vote follows a tumultuous military-led transition from autocratic rule marked by political upheaval and bloodshed, but which has also seen free parliamentary elections.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in power since Mubarak’s downfall, has pledged to restore civilian rule by the end of June.
Shafiq HQ ablaze
Later on Monday, a group of Egyptian protesters set fire to Shafiq’s campaign headquarters, the state news agency reported.
The privately-owned Al-Hayat channel broadcast images of the fire at Shafiq’s campaign office in the Cairo district of Dokki, saying it had been caused by a group of protesters. It said there were no injuries.
The state news agency MENA said a group of protesters had broken into the campaign office and vandalized it before setting it ablaze.
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