Islamist takes lead in first vote to lead Egypt after revolt

A former prime minister and a socialist were in a tight race for second place and a chance to run against him to become the country’s next leader.

The run-off will be held on June 16-17, pitting the two top contenders from the first round of voting held on Wednesday and yesterday. The victor is to be announced on June 21.

The landmark vote – the fruit of last year’s uprising that toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak – turned into a heated battle between Islamist candidates and secular figures rooted in Mubarak’s old regime.

The most polarising figures in the race were the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and former air force commander and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

By noon yesterday, the counting had been completed in at least 20 of the country’s 27 provinces, representing around half the votes cast – though workers were still sorting through the paper ballots from the capital Cairo and its sister city Giza.

The election commission said turnout in the election’s first round was about 50 per cent of more than 50 million eligible voters.

Mr Morsi was in the lead with 28 per cent of the ballots so far, according to the independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, which was compiling reports from counting stations.

But the race for second place was neck-and-neck between Mr Shafiq and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, who was a dark horse during months of campaigning but had a surprising surge in the days before voting began as Egyptians looked for an alternative to Islamists and former regime stalwarts.

Mr Sabahi claims the mantle of the nationalist, socialist ideology of Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egypt’s president from 1956 to 1970.

“The results reflect that people are searching for a third alternative, those who fear a religious state and those who don’t want Mubarak’s regime to come back,” said a Sabahi spokesman.

Earlier in the day, Al-Masry Al-Youm’s tally had Mr Shafiq with 21 per cent of the vote and Mr Sabahi at 20 per cent. But then Mr Sabahi scored a surprise win in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, where he came in first and Morsi and Shafiq lagged far behind.