Ex-PM, Muslim Brotherhood to face off in second round

AFP - Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq will go through to a second round presidential run-off vote, Egypt's electoral commission confirmed on Monday.  

Announcing the results, electoral commission chief Faruq 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 commission put official turnout in the vote -- the first since the 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak -- at 46 percent, of the 50 million Egyptians who were eligible to cast a ballot in the historic election.

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.