By Shaimaa Fayed, Dina Zayed :Reuters

CAIRO: Egypt headed for a divisive duel between a Muslim Brother and an ex-military man in a run-off for a president to replace ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, after election results Monday one losing candidate called “dishonest.”
 
The electoral committee confirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Mursi and ex-air force chief and Mubarak ally Ahmad Shafiq had won through to the second round of Egypt’s first truly contested presidential polls.
 
Mursi topped the poll with 24.3 percent of the vote, followed by Shafiq with 23.3 percent. Turnout was 46 percent.
 
A Mursi-Shafiq run-off poses an agonizing dilemma for many of Egypt’s 50 million voters who are equally wary of Islamist rule or a return to a military-backed authoritarian system.
 
About 200 protesters demonstrated in Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, after the results emerged, chanting: “No to Shafiq and to the Brotherhood. The revolution is still in the square.”
 
About half of first-round votes went to candidates somewhere in the middle ground – from leftist firebrand Hamdeen Sabahy, third-placed with 20.4 percent, to moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Aboul Fotouh, with 17.2 percent, and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, with 10.9 percent.
 
All three filed complaints about the voting which were rejected by the six judges forming the electoral committee.
 
The disputes add rancor to an already messy and often bloody transition to democracy since generals took over from Mubarak when a popular uprising forced him out on Feb. 11, 2011.
 
“I reject these results and do not recognize them,” said Abol Fotouh, an ex-Brotherhood member, alleging votes had been bought and representatives of candidates had been denied access to polling stations during the count.
 
“The national conscience does not allow for labeling these elections honest,” said Abol Fotouh, the only one of the 12 first-round contenders to reject the result outright.
 
Moussa said earlier that “question marks” hung over the vote. “There were violations, but this should not change our minds on democracy and the necessity of choosing our president.” The Muslim Brotherhood sought to muster a coalition to help Mursi against Shafiq, who calls Mubarak his “role model.”
 
Neither man came close to winning the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to clinch the presidency in the first round.
 
The close contest has set both contenders scrambling for support, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, which is trying to draw losing candidates and other political forces into a broad front to prevent a “counter-revolutionary” Shafiq victory.
 
The ultra-orthodox Salafist Islamist party Al-Nour has said it will now back Mursi, after siding with Abol Fotouh in the first round. The party has the second biggest bloc in parliament after the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
 
Shafiq is also seeking wider backing, even posing as a protector of the revolt that toppled Mubarak. His supporters see him as the man to impose security and crack down on protests viewed as damaging to the economy.
 
Mursi appeals to Egyptians keen for Islamists to run a deeply religious country within a democratic framework.
 
“I would bet that at some stage in the next two weeks there will be an upsurge in violence,” said a Western diplomat, who predicted that such a flare-up would probably boost Shafiq’s chances given his promises to enforce law and order.
 
The military council has promised to lift a hated state of emergency in force throughout Mubarak’s 30-year rule on May 31. It has also pledged to hand over power to the new president by July 1.
 
A Brotherhood source, who asked not to be identified, said the Islamist group’s FJP had prepared a menu of options to tempt rival groups and politicians to its side.
 
These include creating a five-member advisory council to advise the president; assigning the posts of prime minister or vice president to Abol Fotouh and Sabahy; distributing Cabinet posts to other parties and offering compromises on planned laws and on an assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution.
 
So far Abol Fotouh and Sabahy have appeared wary of such overtures, avoiding meetings called by the Brotherhood to discuss strategy for the second round of a vote meant to crown Egypt’s turbulent army-led transition to democracy.
 
Moussa, a former foreign minister once seen as favorite to win the presidency, but who appears to have managed only fifth place, said he would stay in politics but was seeking no post.