Likely Runoff Choices Represent Two Extremes Facing Egypt
The runoff to become Egypt’s first freely elected president is likely to be a contest between two of the most powerful and polarizing forces in Egyptian society representing different visions for the future character of the nation: political Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood or secular authoritarianism aligned with the military.
After a wild and fluid two-month campaign by more than a dozen candidates, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general who served as President Hosni Mubarak’s final prime minister, emerged with the most votes Friday, according to independent tallies and the official state news media.
Mr. Morsi won about a quarter of the vote and Mr. Shafik slightly less, effectively reprising the decades-old power struggle between a military-backed, secular strongman and Islamists intent on a more disciplined, religious-infused system of governance.
For many here, the choice dimmed the hope that last year’s popular revolution would ultimately chart a middle path, one that united rather than polarized, transcending differences instead of exacerbating them. But Mr. Morsi and Mr. Shafik represent extremes, offering a wrenching choice for the majority of voters who had cast their ballots for one of the other candidates.