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Egyptians protest outcome of first round of election
Attackers set fire Monday to the headquarters of Egyptian presidential runoff candidate Ahmed Shafiq, an ex-prime minister under the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak
Former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq, who has described Mubarak as a role model, will face the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi in the run-off. It is a contest between the two most polarizing and controversial figures in the race. (AFP/Getty Images)
A group of protesters broke into and vandalized Shafiq’s office in the residential district of Dokki before setting it ablaze, the state news agency reported. An official in the fire service confirmed the blaze had been extinguished without causing any casualties. (AFP/Getty Images)
Several thousand protesters took to the streets across Egypt to demonstrate against the result of the election’s first round, which was officially announced on Monday. (AFP/Getty Images)
Trouble flared in Cairo’s Tahrir Square when activists said unknown assailants attacked one such protest. Rocks flew in scenes reminiscent of other spasms of violence during a messy transition from military rule that is due to end when the military hands power to the new president on July 1.(AFP/Getty Images)
Local media reported the protest had been attacked by unknown “thugs”, though the account could not be independently confirmed.nnMany analysts had predicted that a Shafiq-Mursi run-off could trigger trouble. The vote marks a ballot box struggle between a symbol of the military-based autocracy of the last six decades and one of the Islamist movements it had oppressed. (AFP/Getty Images)
The result is deeply disappointing to the activist movement that took to the streets on January 25, 2011, triggering the mass uprising that toppled Mubarak. They had seen other candidates as more representative of their hopes for change.nnOne of those candidates, Khaled Ali, joined the protest in Tahrir, “(The elections) were neither free or fair,” Ali told news channel Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, adding that Tahrir was the place that had “toppled Mubarak, and would topple Shafiq”.nnShafiq has built a sizeable constituency with a law-and-order platform, convincing some he is the man to end 15 months of turbulence. Mursi’s supporters believe Mursi and the Brotherhood are the best hope for reforming a corrupt state. (AFP/Getty Images)
