* Violence flares in Cairo after official result
* Several thousands hit streets in Alexandria, Cairo
* Ex-Mubarak PM’s office torched; clashes in Tahrir
* Defeated moderate Islamist candidate decries outcome
(Recasts with protest)
By Tom Perry
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA, May 28 (Reuters) – Demonstrators furious
that Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister made it into the
run-off for the country’s presidential election set ablaze his
campaign headquarters on Monday, underscoring the divisive
outcome of the nation’s historic vote.
The campaign offices of Ahmed Shafiq, viewed as a symbol of
Mubarak’s rule, were set on fire after a group of protesters
broke into and vandalised the premises, the state news agency
reported. An official in the fire service confirmed the blaze
had been extinguished without causing any casualties.
Several thousand protesters took to the streets across Egypt
to demonstrate against the first-round result – a run-off
between Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, two
of the most controversial figures in the field.
Troubled flared in Cairo’s Tahrir Square when activists said
unknown assailants attacked one such protest. Rocks were thrown
in scenes reminiscent of other spasms of violence in a messy
transition from military rule that is due to end with the
election of the president.
The April 6 movement, one of the group’s that spearheaded
the 2011 revolt against Mubarak, said on its Facebook page that
the Tahrir protest had been attacked by unknown “thugs”.
Analysts had predicted that a Shafiq-Mursi run-off could
trigger trouble, leading to a ballot box struggle between a
symbol of the military-based autocracy of the last six decades
and one of the Islamist movements it had oppressed.
The result is deeply disappointing to the activist movement
that took to the streets on Jan. 25, 2011, inciting the protests
that toppled Mubarak. They had seen other candidates as more
representative of their hopes for change.
One of those candidates, Khaled Ali, joined a protest in
Tahrir Square, where the numbers grew into the night.
“Revolutionaries! Free! We will complete the march!” chanted
some 2,000 demonstrators as they made their way through the
centre of Cairo, a short distance from Tahrir Square, the cradle
of the uprising that toppled Mubarak.
Though both Mursi and Shafiq have sizeable constituencies,
the result has left the many Egyptians who voted for neither
with a wrenching choice between a symbol of the past autocracy
and an Islamist group that arouses deep suspicions for some.
Mursi topped the poll with 24.3 percent of the vote,
followed by Shafiq with 23.3 percent. Turnout was 46 percent,
according to official results released on Monday.
About half of the first-round votes went to candidates
somewhere in the middle ground – from leftist Hamdeen Sabahy,
third-placed with 20.4 percent, to moderate Islamist Abdel
Moneim Abol Fotouh, with 17.2 percent, and former Arab League
secretary-general Amr Moussa, with 10.9 percent.
“Neither Brotherhood or feloul,” said Mahmoud Momen, a
19-year old student, invoking the word used in Egyptian
political slang to refer to politicians who served in the
Mubarak administration. He had voted for Abol Fotouh.
“We want someone who represents the square,” added Momen,
holding aloft a picture of Shafiq with black X daubed over his
face as he took part in the Cairo march.
Another protester, a 19-year old student who identified
himself as Omar, said the vote had been rigged, triggering an
argument with a bystander who disputed the claim.
Similar protests erupted in Alexandria on Egypt’s northern
Mediterranean coast and Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, cities
along the Suez Canal east of Cairo.
In Alexandria, some 2,000 protesters marched through the
city, tearing up Shafiq and Mursi election posters they
encountered along their way.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For a FACTBOX on the election, click on
For more stories on Egypt’s vote, click on
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
A MESSY TRANSITION
Abol Fotouh, Sabahy and Moussa filed complaints about the
voting, all of which were rejected by the six judges forming the
electoral committee.
The disputes add rancour to an already messy and often
bloody transition to democracy since generals took over from
Mubarak when a street revolt forced him out on Feb. 11, 2011.
“I reject these results and do not recognise them,” said
Abol Fotouh, a former Brotherhood member, alleging that votes
had been bought and representatives of candidates had been
denied access to polling stations during the count.
Moussa said earlier that “question marks” hung over the
vote. “There were violations, but this should not change our
minds on democracy and the necessity of choosing our president.”
The Muslim Brotherhood sought to muster a coalition to help
Mursi against Shafiq, who calls Mubarak a role model.
The close contest has set both contenders scrambling for
support, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, which is trying to
draw losing candidates and other political forces into a broad
front to prevent a “counter-revolutionary” Shafiq victory.
The ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist party Al-Nour has said it
will now back Mursi, after siding with Abol Fotouh in the first
round. The party has the second biggest bloc in parliament after
the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
Beyond the Islamist movement, it might prove harder for the
group to find allies. Secular-minded parties have grown
suspicious of the Brotherhood, accusing it of being power hungry
and putting a quest for power over principle – charges it
denies.
A Brotherhood source, who asked not to be named, said the
Islamist group’s FJP party had prepared a menu of options to
tempt rival groups and politicians to its side.
These include creating a five-member advisory council to
advise the president; assigning the posts of prime minister or
vice-president to Abol Fotouh and Sabahy; distributing cabinet
posts to other parties and offering compromises on planned laws
and on an assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.
Shafiq is also seeking wider backing, even posing as a
protector of the revolt that toppled Mubarak.
Shafiq’s supporters see him as the man to impose security
and crack down on protests viewed as damaging to the economy.
Mursi appeals to Egyptians who believe the Islamists are
best qualified to reform a corrupt state.
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Tamim Elyan, Shaimaa
Fayed, Dina Zayed, Edmund Blair and Patrick Werr; Writing by
Alistair Lyon and Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
