Presidential front-runner Ahmad Shafiq's campaign office in Cairo torched

Cairo: Angry protesters Monday night set on fire the main campaign office of presidential front-runner Ahmad Shafiq, hours after official results secured him a place in a run-off vote.

The protesters destroyed equipment and tore apart posters inside the office in the fashionable area of Dokki before setting it ablaze, said campaigners.

No casualties were reported. At least two suspected attackers were arrested, said local media. Their identity was not immediately given.

Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last premier, will face Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Mursi in the run-off due to take place on June 16-17.
Mursi, an engineering professor, came first garnering 5.76 million of the valid votes cast in the May 23-24 polls, said an official election commission on Monday. He was followed by Shafiq with 5.50 million votes, added the commission.

Thousands of Egyptians Monday night gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo and other big cities, protesting the result and chanting slogans against the two finalists. To them, Shafiq is an extension of the Mubarak regime, while Mursi belongs to a group allegedly seeking power monopoly. The Muslim Brotherhood controls nearly half of the parliament's seats.

The protesters also claimed that the election, the first since Mubarak's ouster more than a year ago, had been rigged. However, the election commission Monday said that the reported irregularities were not serious enough to invalidate the outcome. The panel's decisions cannot be appealed.