Egyptians started casting ballots in presidential runoff

Egyptians started casting their ballots in a presidential runoff during two-days of voting across the country. The eligible voters went to the polls in the North African state on Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17, with Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party candidate, Mohammed Morsi running against former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq. Early results show Morsi has won 78 percent of the expatriates’ votes and is ahead of Shafiq. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has vowed to hand over power to the winner of the election by July 1. Many Egyptians fear that Shafiq is the undeclared candidate of the military council, and that the military-appointed election committee overseeing the election will forge the results in favor of Shafiq. Angry protesters held rallies across the country, urging the authorities to ban Hosni Mubarak’s remnant from joining the race. However, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) allowed Shafiq to stay in the voting, saying the parliament-approved political isolation law is unconstitutional. The law approved by the parliament bars senior officials of the Mubarak regime and top members of his now-dissolved National Democratic Party from standing for public office for 10 years. This is while, Egypt’s historic elections comes two days ahead of the SCC decision to dissolve the parliament, a move interpreted by many political figures as a “coup attempt.” The dissolution of the parliament, meanwhile, will allow the winner of the race to take office without a permanent constitution to define his powers or responsibilities. On Thursday, Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi called on Egyptians to go to polling stations this weekend and safeguard their revolution. He reiterated that he cannot allow the remnants of Egypt’s former regime to return to power.