Egypt Election Winner? Looks Like a Runoff

Mohamed Morsi likely to face Ahmed Shafiq, but others claim victory, too
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2012 7:32 AM CDT
Egypt Election Winner? Looks Like a Runoff
A stack of the ballots counted by election officials are laid on a table at the presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, yesterday.   (AP Photo/Fredrik Persson)

Egypt's presidential race is almost certainly heading toward a runoff vote, according to unofficial results so far. The consensus is that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was the top vote-getter in the first round, with 30.8% of votes counted so far, but who he'll be facing is much more up in the air. Most likely the second-place winner will be the former air force general Ahmed Shafiq, a law-and-order candidate aligned with Hosni Mubarak (though never really considered a dedicated loyalist), who has about 21% of the vote, according to the AP and New York Times.

But other candidates could still pull off a second-place showing, too—leftist Hamdeen Sabahi has about 20% of the vote, according to the AP. Former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa also claims to be poised to land in second, according to the Wall Street Journal; but the AP has Moussa in a distant fifth, behind moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh in fourth. Official results should be announced next week, and the runoff election will be held June 16 and 17. (More Egypt stories.)

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