CAIRO — Egyptians lined up Saturday to pick the first president since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, choosing between a standard-bearer of the old secular autocracy and veteran of its Islamist opposition, even as a power grab by Egypt’s ruling generals ended the hope that the vote would complete Egypt’s transition to democracy.
The runoff election this weekend was to have been the culmination of a nearly 18-month transition since the 18-day uprising that forced out Mr. Mubarak, the moment that the generals who seized control after his ouster said they were waiting for to hand power to an elected civilian, inaugurate a new democracy, and end six decades of military rule.
Instead, the vote took place in the shadow of the generals’ moves just a day before to shut down the democratically elected, Islamist-led Parliament, take over lawmaking authority and vow to issue their own interim constitution, which would define the role of the leader voters were choosing on Saturday.
“This is the end stage of the whole transition,” said Mahmoud Ismail, 27, a political activist in the town of Menoufia. “To be or not to be.”
The actions by the ruling military council on Friday, acting on a court ruling rushed out on the eve of the vote that dissolved Parliament, foreclosed the possibility that the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood might immediately take control of both the Parliament and the presidency. And it raised the likelihood that the new president will be either wrestling the military for power in a longer political struggle or perhaps a collaborator doing its bidding.
Many called it a soft coup, and some voters said they had all but abandoned their hopes for the man they would elect. “The president who is coming will have no powers whatsoever,” said Mohamed Saqr, 51, a bank manager waiting to cast his vote in the working class Cairo neighborhood of Saeda Zeinab.
The two candidates, meanwhile, representing the main opposing forces of the Mubarak era, pushed ahead with their campaigns, mobilizing their respective battle-tested political machines.
The Islamist, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, waited in line to cast his vote in the Nile delta town of Zagazig where he used to teach engineering. “God is greatest,” a throng cried as he emerged. he saluted those killed demonstrating against Mr. Mubarak. “Today is the day of the martyrs,” he declared. “There is no place at all for Mubarak’s helpers.”
The other candidate, Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general and Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, cast his ballot in the style of his former boss. Surrounded by a heavy guard of military and police officers, he visited a school-turned-polling place in an upscale suburb. The lines were pushed aside and guards immediately closed the facility for his private use.
“The Brotherhood is dissolved,” chanted small crowds of his supporters waiting both inside and outside the polling place, cheering at the dissolution of the Brotherhood-led Parliament. State media reported that a cameraman in a military vehicle filmed Mr. Shafik’s trip to the ballot box, apparently to preserve it for posterity.
The Web site of the state newspaper Al Ahram also reported that in one Nile Delta town Shafik supporters used air-conditioned buses to transport his supporters to the polls. And in the Delta governorate of Menoufiya, Shafik campaign operatives acknowledged they were busing supporters to the polls, saying they had learned the trick from watching the Brotherhood during the first round of voting in May.
Many voters bemoaned the polarizing choice, between a face of the old authoritarianism and the Islamist group that was its principle opposition. In the first round of voting, a narrow majority of voters supported candidates promising a break with the past, and who were sharply critical of both the Brotherhood and the Mubarak government. The two winners each relied on their organizations — the former ruling party’s network of local power brokers for Mr. Shafik, and the Brotherhood’s vast organization of local cells and charities for Mr. Morsi — to muster just under a quarter of the vote.
“I wanted anybody other than these two,” said Kamel el Ghoneim, 50, owner of a small computer-support company.
Others said they were disgusted by the distortions and mudslinging during the final weeks of the campaign. As the Brotherhood accused Mr. Shafik of attempting to reconstitute the old system — some of its campaign posters depicted his face fused, or replaced with Mr. Mubarak’s — Mr. Shafik’s retaliated with increasingly outlandish inversions of history that accused the Brotherhood of supporting the old regime and claimed that Mr. Shafik embraced the revolution.
In fact, many of the Brotherhood’s leaders endured jail sentences and some of its activists were tortured because of their opposition to Mr. Mubarak’s rule. During last year’s revolt, its cadres were a mainstay of the protests in Tahrir Square.
But after entering the runoff against the Brotherhood’s candidate, Mr. Shafik began accusing the group of complicity in the Mubarak government. Although Mr. Shafik was Mr. Mubarak’s prime ministerat a moment when soldiers and police did nothing to stop the attacks by Mubarak loyalists on protesters, he has lately asserted that “bearded” Islamist gunmen tied to the Brotherhood were responsible for shooting demonstrators. Shafik supporters even filed murder charges against Brotherhood leaders to drive home the point.
In a television interview two nights ago Mr. Shafik, a loyalist who sometimes says he still admires Mr. Mubarak, claimed credit for persuading the military leaders and former Vice President Omar Suleiman to force Mr. Mubarak out.
“I’m the one who proposed the idea of stepping down, and I proposed it insistently," he said, asserting that he had proposed in a meeting with the top military leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Mr. Soliman. It took "perseverance" to persuade Field Marshall Tantawi to seize power, Mr. Shafik said. Perhaps nowhere was the effectiveness of Mr. Shafik’s ground operation, and his reliance on the old order, more evident than in Menoufia, a district that Mr. Shafik won by a wide margin during the first round. Mr. Mubarak hailed from Menoufia, as did former President Anwar el-Sadat. So did the disgraced tycoon Ahmed Ezz, whose reputation for corruption became a rallying cry for the revolutionaries last year.
Mr. Shafik’s campaign team there, led by a past chairman of Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party, launched a broad attack on the Brotherhood’s credibility in recent weeks, portraying them as liars and hypocrites, in league with both American officials and disgraced cronies of Mr. Mubarak.
Tarek al-Warraqui, a campaign staff member who was previously a press officer for the local government, distributed fliers containing those charges, and Mr. Shafik’s accomplishments, throughout the area.
“We don’t have a party,” he said. “We have a network. And our group has experience. We have someone in every village."
Some voters were ready to accept Mr. Shafik’s allegations against the Brotherhood, demonized under Mr. Mubarak.
“We’ve seen atrocities from the Muslim Brotherhood,” Eman Youssef, a housewife who voted in the regional capital of Shibin al-Kom. “The opening of the prisons. The killing of protesters. They were directly responsible for the Battle of the Camels,” as the violent attacks in Tahrir Square, usually attributed to Mr. Mubarak’s security forces, are called.
Mr. Warraqui said that Mr. Shafik had an easy time attracting voters, especially among the ranks of people who had become increasingly disillusioned with the Brotherhood and their broken promises. Brotherhood officials had first promised not to seek more than a third of the seats in Parliament but then taken nearly half. The group had also pledged not to seek the presidency but was now fighting fiercely for it.
Ms. Youssef said: “They’ve accomplished nothing with the power we gave them in the parliamentary elections. No one knows what they will do to us if they take the power they’re seeking.,” she said. “I hate them.”
Others, though, saw at vote for Mr. Morsi as a last, desperate attempt to save the uprising. Nervana Fouad, a 36-year old teacher, had voted for Amr Moussa in the first round, a former foreign minister who like Mr. Shafik, had framed his campaign as a more secular alternative to the Brotherhood.
Now she was voting for Mr. Morsi. “It’s probably cooked for Shafik to win,” she said. “I don’t agree with Morsi’s policies but he’s our only hope that the revolution to survive.”
“I’m fulfilling my responsibility," she said. "God is there."
Mayy El Sheikh and Liam Stack contributed reporting.
The runoff election this weekend was to have been the culmination of a nearly 18-month transition since the 18-day uprising that forced out Mr. Mubarak, the moment that the generals who seized control after his ouster said they were waiting for to hand power to an elected civilian, inaugurate a new democracy, and end six decades of military rule.
Instead, the vote took place in the shadow of the generals’ moves just a day before to shut down the democratically elected, Islamist-led Parliament, take over lawmaking authority and vow to issue their own interim constitution, which would define the role of the leader voters were choosing on Saturday.
“This is the end stage of the whole transition,” said Mahmoud Ismail, 27, a political activist in the town of Menoufia. “To be or not to be.”
The actions by the ruling military council on Friday, acting on a court ruling rushed out on the eve of the vote that dissolved Parliament, foreclosed the possibility that the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood might immediately take control of both the Parliament and the presidency. And it raised the likelihood that the new president will be either wrestling the military for power in a longer political struggle or perhaps a collaborator doing its bidding.
Many called it a soft coup, and some voters said they had all but abandoned their hopes for the man they would elect. “The president who is coming will have no powers whatsoever,” said Mohamed Saqr, 51, a bank manager waiting to cast his vote in the working class Cairo neighborhood of Saeda Zeinab.
The two candidates, meanwhile, representing the main opposing forces of the Mubarak era, pushed ahead with their campaigns, mobilizing their respective battle-tested political machines.
The Islamist, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, waited in line to cast his vote in the Nile delta town of Zagazig where he used to teach engineering. “God is greatest,” a throng cried as he emerged. he saluted those killed demonstrating against Mr. Mubarak. “Today is the day of the martyrs,” he declared. “There is no place at all for Mubarak’s helpers.”
The other candidate, Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general and Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, cast his ballot in the style of his former boss. Surrounded by a heavy guard of military and police officers, he visited a school-turned-polling place in an upscale suburb. The lines were pushed aside and guards immediately closed the facility for his private use.
“The Brotherhood is dissolved,” chanted small crowds of his supporters waiting both inside and outside the polling place, cheering at the dissolution of the Brotherhood-led Parliament. State media reported that a cameraman in a military vehicle filmed Mr. Shafik’s trip to the ballot box, apparently to preserve it for posterity.
The Web site of the state newspaper Al Ahram also reported that in one Nile Delta town Shafik supporters used air-conditioned buses to transport his supporters to the polls. And in the Delta governorate of Menoufiya, Shafik campaign operatives acknowledged they were busing supporters to the polls, saying they had learned the trick from watching the Brotherhood during the first round of voting in May.
Many voters bemoaned the polarizing choice, between a face of the old authoritarianism and the Islamist group that was its principle opposition. In the first round of voting, a narrow majority of voters supported candidates promising a break with the past, and who were sharply critical of both the Brotherhood and the Mubarak government. The two winners each relied on their organizations — the former ruling party’s network of local power brokers for Mr. Shafik, and the Brotherhood’s vast organization of local cells and charities for Mr. Morsi — to muster just under a quarter of the vote.
“I wanted anybody other than these two,” said Kamel el Ghoneim, 50, owner of a small computer-support company.
Others said they were disgusted by the distortions and mudslinging during the final weeks of the campaign. As the Brotherhood accused Mr. Shafik of attempting to reconstitute the old system — some of its campaign posters depicted his face fused, or replaced with Mr. Mubarak’s — Mr. Shafik’s retaliated with increasingly outlandish inversions of history that accused the Brotherhood of supporting the old regime and claimed that Mr. Shafik embraced the revolution.
In fact, many of the Brotherhood’s leaders endured jail sentences and some of its activists were tortured because of their opposition to Mr. Mubarak’s rule. During last year’s revolt, its cadres were a mainstay of the protests in Tahrir Square.
But after entering the runoff against the Brotherhood’s candidate, Mr. Shafik began accusing the group of complicity in the Mubarak government. Although Mr. Shafik was Mr. Mubarak’s prime ministerat a moment when soldiers and police did nothing to stop the attacks by Mubarak loyalists on protesters, he has lately asserted that “bearded” Islamist gunmen tied to the Brotherhood were responsible for shooting demonstrators. Shafik supporters even filed murder charges against Brotherhood leaders to drive home the point.
In a television interview two nights ago Mr. Shafik, a loyalist who sometimes says he still admires Mr. Mubarak, claimed credit for persuading the military leaders and former Vice President Omar Suleiman to force Mr. Mubarak out.
“I’m the one who proposed the idea of stepping down, and I proposed it insistently," he said, asserting that he had proposed in a meeting with the top military leader, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Mr. Soliman. It took "perseverance" to persuade Field Marshall Tantawi to seize power, Mr. Shafik said. Perhaps nowhere was the effectiveness of Mr. Shafik’s ground operation, and his reliance on the old order, more evident than in Menoufia, a district that Mr. Shafik won by a wide margin during the first round. Mr. Mubarak hailed from Menoufia, as did former President Anwar el-Sadat. So did the disgraced tycoon Ahmed Ezz, whose reputation for corruption became a rallying cry for the revolutionaries last year.
Mr. Shafik’s campaign team there, led by a past chairman of Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party, launched a broad attack on the Brotherhood’s credibility in recent weeks, portraying them as liars and hypocrites, in league with both American officials and disgraced cronies of Mr. Mubarak.
Tarek al-Warraqui, a campaign staff member who was previously a press officer for the local government, distributed fliers containing those charges, and Mr. Shafik’s accomplishments, throughout the area.
“We don’t have a party,” he said. “We have a network. And our group has experience. We have someone in every village."
Some voters were ready to accept Mr. Shafik’s allegations against the Brotherhood, demonized under Mr. Mubarak.
“We’ve seen atrocities from the Muslim Brotherhood,” Eman Youssef, a housewife who voted in the regional capital of Shibin al-Kom. “The opening of the prisons. The killing of protesters. They were directly responsible for the Battle of the Camels,” as the violent attacks in Tahrir Square, usually attributed to Mr. Mubarak’s security forces, are called.
Mr. Warraqui said that Mr. Shafik had an easy time attracting voters, especially among the ranks of people who had become increasingly disillusioned with the Brotherhood and their broken promises. Brotherhood officials had first promised not to seek more than a third of the seats in Parliament but then taken nearly half. The group had also pledged not to seek the presidency but was now fighting fiercely for it.
Ms. Youssef said: “They’ve accomplished nothing with the power we gave them in the parliamentary elections. No one knows what they will do to us if they take the power they’re seeking.,” she said. “I hate them.”
Others, though, saw at vote for Mr. Morsi as a last, desperate attempt to save the uprising. Nervana Fouad, a 36-year old teacher, had voted for Amr Moussa in the first round, a former foreign minister who like Mr. Shafik, had framed his campaign as a more secular alternative to the Brotherhood.
Now she was voting for Mr. Morsi. “It’s probably cooked for Shafik to win,” she said. “I don’t agree with Morsi’s policies but he’s our only hope that the revolution to survive.”
“I’m fulfilling my responsibility," she said. "God is there."
Mayy El Sheikh and Liam Stack contributed reporting.