Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has officially (and narrowly) won Egypt’s presidential election, the electoral commission has announced.
Morsi amassed 13.2 million votes out of just over 26 million cast, giving him 51 percent of the vote. He beat out Ahmed Shafiq, the final prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak who got 12.3 million votes. In all, over 800,000 ballots were invalidated.
Farouq Sultan, the head of the election commission, delivered a lengthy speech before announcing the election results in which he defended the body’s “independence and integrity” amid what he referred to as meddling by unnamed political factions.
Tahrir Square erupted into joyous celebration after Morsi’s victory was revealed. Thousands of his supporters waved Egyptian flags and chanted “God is great.”
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Egyptian military, congratulated Morsi on his win. Reactions also came in from around the Middle East. The governments of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the Palestinian Authority congratulated Morsi.
There was no immediate reaction from the campaign of Ahmed Shafiq.
More in the video below.
Related articles
- Mohammed Morsi has won the Egyptian presidential election (rt.com)
- Egypt to announce election results (standard.co.uk)
- Egypt: Officers can ‘shoot to kill’ in case of post-election attacks on police (cnn.com)
- Egypt braces for Islamist president or ex-army man – Reuters (reuters.com)
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