The Egyptian Presidential Election Commission on Sunday announced that Mohammed Morsi, head of the Brotherhood’s political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, won a narrow but clear victory.
The declaration by the commission’s chairman, Farouq Sultan, a judge close to ex-President Hosni Mubarak, relieves immediate concern at the possibility of widespread unrest by Islamists and secular revolutionaries, who had feared the win would be given to Mr Morsi’s opponent, Ahmed Shafiq,a retired general and Mr Mubarak’s last prime minister.
The Brotherhood’s own count of published polling station figures had given Mr Morsi a 52-48 per cent win, a judgement agreed by most independent newspapers and observers. Final election figures from the commission reflected a similar score. Mr Shafiq won more than 12 million votes while Mr Morsi more than 13 million.
Turnout was 51 per cent.
In advance of the declaration, troops and police flooded the streets of the capital to protect public buildings in case of disorder. The army had threatened a “firm response” to any sign of trouble.
The result is a remarkable achievement for the Islamists, who emerged from decades of persecution to seize a seemingly unassailable position in Egypt’s politics after the overthrow of Mr Mubarak.
A month ago, they were in control of the first freely elected parliament, were set to dominate the committee drawing up a new constitution, and their candidate had led the first round of voting in the presidential elections.