Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsi and ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq entered the run-off round in June of the historic presidential vote after the fall of ex-leader Hosni Mubarak, the Higher Presidential Election Commission (HPEC) announced Monday.

Chairman of the HPEC, Farouk Sultan, told a press conference here on Monday that around 46 percent of Egypt's 50 million eligible voters cast their votes in the election's first round.

Among the 12 candidates, Morsi and Shafiq led the contest, garnering 5.765 million and 5.505 million votes respectively. They were followed by Hamdeen Sabahi and Aboul Fotouh, with 4.82 million and 4.065 million votes respectively. Former Arab League chief Amr Moussa ranked fifth with 2.588 million votes.

"At this historic moment, the HPEC successfully practiced its job to guarantee a smooth and peaceful transition of Egypt to true freedom and democracy with an elected president," Sultan said, adding that his commission had allowed observing organizations from 50 countries to monitor the election process.

"The HPEC have all together received seven complain files, four of which were refused because they were against the election law. The other three were also dismissed because they were sued beyond the appeal period," Sultan said.

Meanwhile, he denied that there were 600 to 900 thousand people from the police whose names had been added to the lists of voters for the benefit of specific candidate.

He further noted that since the People's Assembly elections that took place from November to January, only 941,715 voters, of which around 533,012 were women, were added to the electoral database, adding that names of ineligible voters had been aggregated and sent to all polling stations to be removed from the voting lists, official news agency MENA reported.

Sultan affirmed that his commission has worked with utmost impartiality and put Egypt's interests above any consideration, adding that it was keen to secure the ballot papers and keep them away from any arbitrary misuse or tampering.

He admitted there were various voting irregularities, but denied that those irregularities could affect the results of the election.
As for the security job of the election, Sultan thanked the successful role of the army and the police, hailing them as handling the election properly.

He also hailed the role of the ministries of justice and education in rendering the whole electoral process "successful", urging those voted in the first round to cast ballots again in the run-off.

During a parliament session on Monday, as many as 29 lawmakers from Upper Egypt including Mohamed al-Omda, deputy head of the parliament's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, said they will support Mohammed Morsi in the run-off of the presidential election due on June 16-17.

Ranking fourth in the first round, Aboul Fotouh on Monday called for putting off the run-off until the Supreme Constitutional Court rules the legality of the disenfranchisement law which aims to banning officials of the former regime from running for the presidency.

There is a good possibility that the qualification of one of the candidates will be revoked if the law is proved, he said.

He also pointed out that there were some "serious" violations in the first round, such as denying candidates' representatives access to polling stations in the period between the evening of the first election day and the start of the second, MENA reported.

Fotouh's remark was echoed by dozens of youths who staged a protest outside the High Court of Justice in Downtown Cairo, calling for enforcing the disenfranchisement law on Shafiq.

The election that kicked off last Wednesday was the first ever free presidential election after the fall of long-time leader Mubarak.
In addition, the Salafists' Nour party who laid their weight behind Fotouh in the first round announced on Monday that it will support Morsi in the run-off.

The run-off round between Morsi and Shafiq will be held on June 16-17, and the final result will be announced on June 21, as the ruling military council is expected to hand over power by June 30.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet