CAIRO: Egyptians will find out today whether their next president will be a former military officer or an Islamist from the army’s old adversary, the Muslim Brotherhood, after a long week’s wait since a vote to pick a successor to the deposed Hosni Mubarak.
Impatient Brotherhood supporters have been out on Cairo’s Tahrir Square day and night since a call in midweek from their leaders to demand the current ruling generals cancel measures they say are designed to hem in the powers of the man they believe was elected last weekend, Islamist Muhammad Mursi.
Hundreds were there again yesterday, chanting “Victory for Mursi!” and “Mursi, Mursi, Allah-u-Akbar!” (God is greatest), before officials finally set a time for announcing the result. The election committee will do so at news conference at 3 p.m. today, committee official Hatem Bagato said yesterday, after run-off voting was held on June 16-17.
The party atmosphere in the square anticipated what could be one of the most dramatic turns of events in the Middle East in decades — the emergence of an Islamist president of the most populous Arab nation.
A delay in announcing the result, initially scheduled for Thursday, was explained by officials as required to deal with appeals over local voting irregularities. But it has prompted Brotherhood concern that the military-led “deep state,” left over when Mubarak was toppled last year, was trying to steal their victory, just as it routinely rigged votes in the past.
“We want the military council to announce the real results without forgery,” said Hassan Eissa, 43, an accountant from north of Cairo who was demonstrating on the square. He accused the army of reneging on promises to hand over when it dissolved the Islamist-led Parliament on the eve of the presidential run-off and then took for itself legislative powers by decree.
“They have no right,” Eissa said. “Egyptians shouldn’t be under any kind of guardianship after the revolution.” A Mursi win would create a dramatic new configuration for Egypt’s politics.
Reformist politician Mohamed El-Baradei said he had been in contact with the military and Mursi’s camp to avoid a showdown, but said he was worried that if Ahmed Shafiq were declared winner “we are in for a lot of instability and violence ... a major uprising.” His comments were carried by the CNN website.
Violence by Islamists in Tunisia, whose revolt inspired that in Egypt, has troubled many Egyptian liberals.
Yesterday, a group of liberal and leftist groups announced the formation of an alternative “civil front,” seeking support from those wanting neither military nor religious rule.
“Those who are attacking the military council, have allied with it when their interests were in line,” said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, noting links between the Muslim Brotherhood and ruling generals in the past year.
Senior figures from both the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brotherhood told Reuters they had been in discreet talks this week on political arrangements, though the army has made clear it will not go back on what critics called a “soft coup” aimed at delaying a handover to full civilian rule.
It will neither cancel the dissolution of the Islamist-led Parliament nor a decree by which it reserved legislative powers for the council, curbing the president’s power.
Presented with a take-it-or-leave-it choice, the Brotherhood may find a compromise to pull their protesters off the streets. Years of conflict have made it a wary organization, and it has cooperated with the council in the 16 months since Mubarak fell.
Electoral and military officials told Reuters during the week and as late as Friday that the Brotherhood candidate had a narrow but clear lead over Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister. But nothing is certain. One newspaper, Shorouk, headlined: “Mursi to be announced president today ... Unless.”
Mursi, like Shafiq, has promised to build a government that brings in people from across the political spectrum. Many of those who launched the Arab Spring uprising were dismayed when more centrist candidates, neither from the army nor the Brotherhood, were eliminated in the first round vote last month.
