Egypt's Morsi wins presidency
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E-mail Xinhua, June 18, 2012
A member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood announced early Monday that its candidate Mohamed Morsi had won the Egyptian presidential elections.
![Egyptian working staff engage in vote counting. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120618/000cf1bdd03f1148dab833.jpg "Egyptian working staff engage in vote counting. [Xinhua]") |
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Egyptian working?staff?engage in vote counting. [Xinhua] |
Ahmed Abdul-Atii, a senior member of Morsi's campain, told a press conference that voting results of 97 percent of all polling stations showed Morsi won 52.5 percent of the votes while Ahmed Shafiq, the ex-prime minister, got 47.5 percent.
Some fifiteen minutes later, Morsi himself showed up at the press conference, delivering impassionate thanks to his supporers and calling for solidarity among Egyptian voters.
"To those who died and were injured during the revolution, I solute to their families. Egypt will not forget them. I respect their rights," Morsi said.
He continued to say he would not take revenge towards anybody in the future.
"All the Egyptians are my brothers and friends, I assure all Copts, churches, Al-Azhar Mosque that I will lead Egypt to a civil, secular and democratic state," said Morsi, adding that all citizens were equal.
"We should not look behind. We have to work hard for a better Egypt where nobody oppresses another," he added.
Supporters of Morsi shouted and cheered after the news was announced. The results will be officially announced on June 21 by the electoral commission.
However, a senior member of Shafiq's campaign told Xinhua that they disagreed with Brotherhood's claim of victory.
"The counting is still going on now in Cairo and other big governorates. It's impossible to finish all counting in such a short time, so we doubt the results of the Muslim Brotherhood. There are some exaggeration," said the member who required anonymity.
Vote counting immediately started after the presidential run-off ended at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) Sunday across the country.
In the first round of the vote held on May 23 and 24, the turnout was 46 percent. Morsi won 24.4 percent of the votes and Shafiq got 23.3 percent.
The run-off came just two days after Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court voided the Islamists-dominated People's Assembly (lower house of parliament), ruling that the parliament election law was unconstitutional.
The court also ruled that the political isolation law targeting officials of the government led by Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak was unconstitutional, ending the debate over Shafiq's qualification.
The ruling put Egypt's new president in a delicate position as the winning candidate will assume office without a parliament.
After Mubarak was forced to resign after 18 days of mass protests against his 29-year rule last Feburary, a military council took up transitional power. Egypt's constitution was suspended and parliament dissolved shortly after Mubarak's fall.
From November last year to February this year, Egyptians elected the two houses of parliament. Islamist parties won more than 70 percent of the seats in both chambers.
