According to Al-Masry Al-Youm`s count, the Muslim Brotherhood`s Mohamed Morsy garnered 51.13 percent of the vote, securing the post of the president, after a fierce runoff that pushed former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq out of the race with a slim difference.
Morsy gathered 12,322,549 votes, while Shafiq got 12,201,549, or 48.87 percent of the vote.
Morsy consolidated gains in most Upper Egyptian cities and villages, where he led in the first round of the presidential race. Shafiq came in first in most of the Delta cities, where he also established himself in the first round of the polls. Morsy secured the first position in eighteen governorates out of twenty-seven, including Giza, Alexandria, Beheira, Minya, Assiut, Fayoum, Qena, Matrouh, and North and South Sinai. Shafiq finished first in nine governorates, including Cairo, Port Said, Sharqiya, Monufiya, and Luxor.
In Cairo, home of 6.5 million voters, Shafiq finished first with 56 percent of the vote. Giza, which follows Cairo in terms of voters` weight with 4.3 million voters, put Morsy in the lead at 60 percent.
Morsy got the highest percentage in one place with eighty percent of the vote in Matrouh going to him.
There were reportedly 24,965,772 valid votes.
Turnout was approximately 49.7 percent of the 50,524,933 eligible voters nationwide, a surge from the first round of the presidential election in which the turnout was at 46.42 percent. The highest turnout was witnessed in the two Delta governorates of Sharqiya and Qalyubiya, while the lowest turnout was in the two Upper Egyptian governorates of Qena and Aswan.
Official results are to be announced by the Presidential Elections Commission on Thursday, after it looks into appeals to the vote counting process throughout the week.
Morsy`s initial win follows a set of constitutional amendments that further empower the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been carrying out the executive functions of the state since 12 February 2011. Morsy`s victory also follows the recent dissolution of Parliament, where his party held the majority of seats, after the Supreme Constitutional Court struck down the law governing the parliamentary elections.
[Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm. This article originally appeared in Egypt Independent.]