Former air force general Ahmed Shafiq appeared to be trying to cast off his image as hardline military supporter as he spoke to reporters Saturday, a day after state media confirmed that he and Muslim Brother candidate Mohammed Morsi will face off in a runoff vote, to be held June 16-17.
Results from the first round of voting showed Mursi ended up with 25.3 per cent of the votes, while Shafiq won 24.9 per cent.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood on Friday said a win for Shafiq would put Egypt's revolution in "danger," something Shafiq denies.
"I extend my hand to all Egyptians. I accept dialogue with all politicians. I am not in the race for the sake of authority," Shafiq said Saturday.
Shafiq was booted out of office by a wave of street protests shortly after Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, 2011.
More than a year later, the face-off for the presidency is pitting two opposing forces that have battled each other for decades.
Each side has die-hard supporters but is also loathed by significant sectors of the population who reject both Shafiq for his military background and Morsi for his Islamist organization's goal of implementing religious law. A large chunk of the vote — more than 40 percent — went to candidates who were seen as more in spirit of the revolution that toppled Mubarak, that is, that they were neither from the Brotherhood nor from the old autocratic regime. In particular, those votes went to leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, who narrowly came in third in a surprisingly strong showing of 21.5 percent, and a moderate Islamist who broke with the Brotherhood, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh.
Source: CBC
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