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Brotherhood Candidate Likely to Compete in Egypt Run-Off

Official results in Egypt's first free presidential election are expected May 29. But Sophie Claudet writes that according to unofficial tallies, with 90 percent of the vote counted so far, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammad Morsi, is leading and will compete in a June run-off against Ahmad Shafiq, currently second, or Hamdeen Sabahi.
Electoral coordinators count votes at a school used as a polling station in Cairo, May 24, 2012. Egyptians queued patiently to vote on Thursday, eager to pick their leader for the first time in a national history dating to the pharaohs, with Islamists and secular-minded rivals who served under deposed President Hosni Mubarak heading the field.   REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Official results in Egypt's first free presidential election aren't expected until Tuesday, but according to unofficial tallies published by the Egyptian news media, with 90% of the vote counted so far, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammad Morsi, is leading and will compete in a June run-off against either Ahmad Shafiq, currently in second place, or Hamdeen Sabahi.

Egyptians flocked to the polls on the second day of voting Thursday. In one of Cairo’s poorest neighborhoods, voters brazenly declared their support for Sabahi, the Nasserite candidate who has vowed to be the president of Egypt’s poor.

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