Anger and worry grip Egypt over Mursi-Shafiq run-off

Cairo: The streets of Egypt’s capital ­— notorious for its legendary traffic congestion ­— were almost deserted on Friday as majority of the mega city’s 17 million people opted to stay glued to their television screens and follow the developments of last week’s landmark presidential election.

Preliminary results show that Mohammad Mursi, a candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Ahmad Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last premier, are the top finishers in the poll. But the neither of the two candidates managed to secure a clear majority to avoid a run-off vote scheduled for June 16 and 17.

Mursi garnered 26 per cent iof the votes in 25 of Egypt’s 27 governorates, according to results released on Friday.

Shafiq followed with 24 per cent, with the leftist contender, Hamdeen Sabahi coming in third place with 20 per cent.

The election commission is due to officially announce the results on Tuesday after looking into appeals from the contending parties.

Abdul Fatah Amr, a taxi driver, who voted for Amr Mousa, a secular-minded former chief of the Arab League, is worried about the result.

“I wished that Mousa would have won or at least gone to the runoff,” Amr said, as he drove across Cairo’s streets.

“Mr Mousa is a veteran statesman, whose win would have meant return to stability to Egypt,” he added.

Amr, a father of five, expects fresh street turmoil if Shafiq, seen as an extension of the Mubarak regime, becomes the president.

Several protest groups have threatned to stage a “second revolution” if the 70-year-old ex-army general wins Egypt’s top post.

The army-backed government has called on Egyptians to accept the outcome of the vote, regardless of the winner. But the call will most likely go unheeded, according to Saeed Mohram, an opposition activist.

“How on earth can we accept that Mubarak is ousted, only for his associate [Shafiq], or the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mursi, to become the president?,” he told Gulf News. “The win of either means that the blood of the martyrs has gone in vain,” he added, referring to more than 800 protesters killed in the revolt that eventually forced Mubarak to step down in February last year.

Shafiq was appointed as a prime minister 12 days before Mubarak’s ouster. Street protests prompted the military, who took over from Mubarak, to sack him in March 2011.

Detractors of Shafiq and the Brotherhood claim they are manipulators of the anti-Mubarak revolution and spent a large sum of money to win over votes.

“If we are keen on establishing democracy in this country, we have to accept the winner, whoever he is,” said Khalid Saif Al Islam, a Brotherhood sympathiser.

“Democracy is not selective. The people have made their decision and we have now to respect it,” he added.

Young people, who played a major role in the anti-Mubarak uprising, put the blame on the moderate Islamist Abdul Moneim Abu Al Fotouh and the socialist contender Hamdeen Sabahi for splitting the vote in favour of the two finalists.

“Abu Al Fotouh, Sabahi and all other contenders, running in the name of the revolution, should have agreed on one of them to compete in the race,” said Shereen Hamdi, a law student. “But their selfishness has proved to be a windfall to Shafiq and Mursi,” she added.

Shafiq greeted his supporters in a Facebook message on Friday. “I will spread freedom in Egypt and restore stability if I become a president,” he added.

Egypt has been gripped by street turmoil and rise in crime rates in the 15 months that followed Mubarak’s overthrow.