Egypt's Islamist candidate to compete with ex-premier in presidential run-off

Cairo, May 26 (Xinhua-ANI): Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi will compete with ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in the run-off vote in June, results released by state media showed on Saturday.

So far, there has been differences about the exact numbers of votes which each candidate won, as the initial results are expected to be announced on Sunday by the Higher Presidential Elections Commission.

But all tallies, compiled by newspapers or websites, put Morsi and Shafiq in the lead. Both did not get the required percentage to be an outright winner, making them to enter the run-off round.

Morsi got 5.45 million votes, or 24.9 percent. Shafiq got 5.34 million, or 24.4 percent, according to the Al-Masry Al-Youm website.

Black-horse Nasserist Hamdeen Sabahi ranked the third with 4.62 million votes, or 21 percent. Moderate Aboul Fatouh and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, ranked the fourth and fifth respectively, with 17.8 percent and 11.3 percent. Fatouh and Moussa had been the top popular candidates in polls prior to the vote. Their weak showing was a bit surprising.

The website of the official Ahram newspaper gave slightly different numbers of votes for the top five candidates, but their ranking was the same.

The turnout of the vote is estimated around 50 percent, lower than the 60 percent of the parliamentary elections earlier this year.

Vote counting immediately started in polling stations after the voting ended on Thursday night. The counting was conducted at the presence of judges. Representatives of different candidates or civil society organizations were allowed to observe the counting process.

A run-off between Morsi and Shafiq will divide people between the Islamic movement and the remnants of former regime senior officials who are called "feloul" in Arabic.

The final results for the run-off will be announced on June 21. The ruling military council is expected to hand over power by June 30. (Xinhua-ANI)