Egypt Elects Its President

Local Editor

In the second round of controversial elections, Egyptians began Saturday voting between the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammad Mursi, and the former Prime Minister of the old regime, Ahmad Shafiq.
According to official information, 50 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the two-day ballot.

Polling opened at 0600 GMT, with 150,000 troops deployed nationwide for the highly divisive election.
Mursi scraped ahead with 24.7 percent in the first round, with former air force chief Shafiq winning 23.6 percent, and there are no clear polls indicating who may gain the upper hand in the run-off.

The election comes amid turmoil that could see the ruling military -- which took power when Mubarak resigned in February last year -- maintain its grip on power.
On Thursday, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled certain articles in the law governing parliamentary elections to be invalid, thus annulling the new elected Parliament.

The Brotherhood won 47 percent of the body's seats in a drawn-out process between November last year and February.
The top court also ruled unconstitutional the "political isolation" law, which bars senior members of Mubarak's regime and top members of his now-dissolved party from running for public office for 10 years.

The law, passed by parliament earlier this year, had threatened to bar Shafiq from the race.

Egyptian parties and activists accused the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of staging a "counter-revolution" after a series of measures that consolidated its power ahead of the polls.

Thursday's court rulings came a day after a justice ministry decision to grant army personnel the right to arrest civilians after that power was lifted when the decades-old state of emergency expired on May 31.

The rulings have put legislative power back in the military's hands and have guaranteed that Shafiq, perceived to be the army's candidate, stays in the race.
The official results of the presidential election are expected on June 21.