Egypt: Islamist and ex-PM to contest presidential run-off

The runoff vote for Egypt's next president will pit the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate against the last prime minister to serve under Hosni Mubarak, according to full official results released by the election commission.

Commission chief Farouq Sultan told a news conference that the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander and a longtime friend of the ousted leader, were the top two finishers in the first round of voting held on May 23-24.

He said Morsi won 5.76 million votes, while Shafiq garnered 5.5 million. Finishing a close third was leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi with 4.82 million votes.

Sultan said his commission received a total of seven appeals, and rejected all of them. Four of the appeals were dismissed because they had no legal basis, while the other three were not accepted because they were submitted after the deadline, he said.

Morsi and Shafiq have been the most polarizing of the 13 candidates who contested the first round, setting the stage for a fiercely contested runoff June 16-17. Already, both men have begun reaching out to a broad spectrum of political and demographic groups who didn't support them in the first round, or nearly half of the 25 millions who voted.

About 50 of Egypt's estimated 82 million people are eligible voters.

AP