Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the new president of Egypt, with 51,7% of the votes, after defeating his opponent Ahmed Shafik, who won 48.3% of the votes. The Egyptian electoral commission, through the voice of its president Faruk Sultan, after a very long press conference that aroused great hilarity on Twitter for its prolixity and which retraced all the cases of electoral fraud, at 16.30 pm on Sunday announced the official results of the second round of presidential elections.
The proclamation was expected three days ago, but the commission requested additional time to evaluate the appeals presented by the two candidates in the running who both claimed victory. It is a fairly narrow victory: Morsi obtained more than 13 million votes against the more than 12 million that went to his challenger, Ahmad Shafik, former prime minister of Hosni Mubarak. Voter turnout was 51% of eligible voters.
Mohammed Morsi launches messages of reconciliation. "I will be the president of all Egyptians," he said in his first speech as president of Egypt. The candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood also paid homage to the "martyrs" of the revolution and assured that he intends to respect international treaties and that he wants peace. "We will keep all international agreements and treaties because we are interested in peace before the whole world." The obvious reference is to the peace agreement signed in 1979 by Egypt with Israel and which has traditionally been criticized by Islamists. Egypt was the first Arab and neighboring country to sign peace with Israel and the regime of Hosni Mubarak maintained a situation of stability in bilateral relations, even if this did not coincide with the sentiments of the street and the intellectual community.
"The United States congratulates Mohamed Morsi on his victory in the Egyptian presidential elections," is the first comment from the White House. The US has defined his election as "a milestone in Egypt's transition towards democracy" and hoped that Egypt will remain "a pillar of peace, security and regional stability" and also hope that in the negotiations for the new government all social and political components are consulted.
