Islamist Morsi Wins Egyptian Presidential Vote

CAIRO—Egypt erupted into celebrations after an election commission named Mohammed Morsi the first democratically elected president in Egyptian history and the first elected Islamist head of state in the Arab world, marking a pivotal moment in a chaotic regional shift toward democracy.

Mr. Morsi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, won 51.7% in runoff presidential elections held a week earlier, said Justice Farouq Sultan, the chairman of the election commission, narrowly defeating former air-force general and former regime loyalist Ahmed Shafiq, who took 48.3%.

The election of an Islamist introduces a moment of anxiety for secular-minded Egyptians, Western governments and Egypt’s powerful neighbors.

It also marks the symbolic beginning of the end for an old order of Arab leaders.

Egyptians celebrating in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday after Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, on poster, was declared the winner of the presidential vote.

The election of a politician aligned with the once illegal Muslim Brotherhood to lead the Arab world’s most-populous nation will send shock waves through a region that for decades has been dominated by Western-backed, secular-minded autocrats.

“It is a revolution against the very nature of the Arab state that is not accountable to its people,” said Khaled Fahmy, a history professor at the American University in Cairo. “For the first time, we have the people in the largest Arab country having and dictating their say despite ferocious opposition.”

In a nod to the new beginnings, Justice Sultan saluted Mr. Morsi as the new president of Egypt’s “second republic.”

The election results begin a new diplomatic phase for the Western governments that for decades relied on a compliant Mr. Mubarak as a bulwark against the powerful Islamists he and other autocrats so often suppressed.

A Morsi presidency threatens to upset a fragile U.S.-backed diplomatic balance.

Along with the U.S., the oil-rich Gulf states helped underwrite Mr. Mubarak’s military-backed, secular rule that safeguarded a decades-old peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and ensured a measure of stability in the volatile region.

Still, the sight of Mr. Morsi preparing to assume the highest office in the Arab world’s most populous nation will likely galvanize the violent uprisings in Syria and Bahrain and buoy the continuing democratic transitions in Yemen, Libya and Tunisia.

The mood in Egypt’s capital Sunday recalled the day of Mr. Mubarak’s own departure more than a year ago. Public squares throughout the country filled with throngs of Egyptians pressing for fundamental political changes that have so far proven elusive.

They erupted in thunderous cheers when the election commission announced Mr. Morsi’s victory.

Mr. Morsi will assume a presidency crippled by military-imposed constitutional changes that have stripped the office of most of its powers. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has ruled Egypt since Mr. Mubarak stepped down in February 2011, has promised to hand over power to the incoming presidency by the end of the month. Much of the military’s writ, however, will remain largely in place. The military assumed legislative authority 10 days ago after a high constitutional court ruled to dissolve an Islamist-dominated parliament that until Sunday had been the most tangible achievement of Egypt’s democratic transition.

Shortly after polls closed Sunday a week ago, the military enraged Islamists and many secular-minded Egyptians by issuing a constitutional declaration that cut short the powers of the presidency. In the past two weeks, the military has also awarded itself expanded law-enforcement capabilities that some analysts said amounted to a return to military rule.

Thousands of demonstrators, most of whom are aligned with Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, have spent the past week in Tahrir Square protesting what some politicians have called a military coup.

Delays in the announcement of results kept Egyptians on tenterhooks throughout the week. Hotels in downtown Cairo on Sunday boarded up their doors and windows in preparation for a violent reaction as military helicopters circled overhead. Rumors circulated that the generals were holding the presidency hostage until the Brotherhood agreed to accept their constitutional restrictions.

But confrontation between Mr. Morsi’s Brotherhood and the military regime seemed far from Egyptians’ minds later Sunday. In a news conference at the Brotherhood’s campaign headquarters, cheering Morsi supporters shouted praise at a military regime with which they have spent much of the past several months in open confrontation.

Shortly after the results were announced, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi phoned Mr. Morsi to congratulate him on his win.

Even amid the celebrations, the confrontation between the military and protesters looked set to continue. In a television interview after the results, Mohamed Al Baltagi, a senior member of the Brotherhood, said the group had “learned their lesson” and wouldn’t leave the square until the military transferred power to Mr. Morsi.

The mood at Mr. Shafiq’s headquarters across the Nile River, however, abruptly turned against the generals to whom Mr. Shafiq had once sworn loyalty.

Mr. Shafiq’s supporters have accused the Brotherhood of defrauding the vote in their favor and holding the election commission hostage by releasing their own vote tallies a week ahead of official results.

Immediately after the commission announced its numbers, dozens of supporters gathered outside Mr. Shafiq’s headquarters in an upper-class Cairo suburb began wailing and screaming in anger.

Mr. Shafiq rode a wave of frustration to the runoff vote by promising to impose law and order over a political transition that has delivered little to the Egyptian public other than rising prices, a spike in violent crime and anxiety over their country’s future.

Hysterical, weeping Shafiq supporters screamed “fraud” and spoke of the military selling out to the “godless” Brotherhood.

A group of young men went to the nearby traffic circle and threw stones at a billboard bearing Mr. Morsi’s portrait while others alternated between chants of “the people demand the fall of the military regime” and “the people demand the execution of the field marshal,” a pointed and unusual slogan for the Shafiq constituency.

The billboard was eventually torn down and set aflame.

The wider Arab world is greeting Mr. Morsi’s victory with a mixture of enthusiasm and dismay.

Officials in the oil-rich Arab states of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates view the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to their rule second only to the Shiite-led Islamic Republic of Iran because of the group’s criticism of their traditional authoritarian rule.

These countries quietly applauded the Egyptian military’s orders last week that dismissed the Muslim Brotherhood-led parliament and neutered the powers of the presidency.

However, Mr. Morsi is likely to receive a boost of support from natural-gas powerhouse Qatar, which has hosted exiled Muslim Brotherhood leaders for years and given the group a powerful platform on its government-financed al-Jazeera Arab news network.

Since the start of the Egyptian uprising last year, Qatar has already promised $500 million in financial aid to Cairo. Qatari investors have also promised more than $10 billion in investments in Egyptian infrastructure projects.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded with a staement saying, “Israel appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects the results of the presidential election. Israel looks forward to continuing cooperation with the Egyptian government on the basis of the peace treaty between the two countries, which is in the joint interest of both peoples and contributes to regional stability.”

Source: WSJ