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Egypt 'in danger,' Brotherhood warns at post-poll presser Following electoral victory, Brotherhood leaders call for cooperation between Egypt's political forces to meet looming threats in coming period
At a brief press conference held by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Friday evening, FJP Vice-President Essam El-Erian stressed that Egypt faced a host of dangerous challenges. Anticipated threats in the upcoming period underlined the need for national unity between various Egyptian political forces "in order to maintain Egypt's revolution," El-Erian stressed. While attempts were currently underway to return the ousted Mubarak regime to power, "The people will not allow this to pass," he added. "A nation in danger" would be the party's slogan in the upcoming period, El-Erian added, noting that Egypt's next president would face serious challenges, especially on the economic and security fronts. He went on to say that a meeting had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon between various presidential candidates and political groups to discuss how to manage the upcoming period. El-Erian stressed that cooperation between various Egyptian political and socio-economic groups remained a priority for the Muslim Brotherhood and its FJP. "We were the first to call for the Democratic Alliance [electoral coalition] during parliamentary elections, which brought together 40 different parties," said El-Erian. Commenting on the post-revolution political role played by Egypt's military, he stated that the armed forces had always been "a sword in the hands of the state and a crown on all Egyptians heads." He stressed, however, that the military should refrain from involvement in Egypt's domestic politics. The military's close involvement in Egypt's post-revolution political scene, he said, had caused "considerable problems." Responding to a question about the possibility of a Shafiq victory in the runoff vote, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie clarified that this was "impossible" because "Egypt's revolutionary forces will not accept a candidate who wishes to turn back the clock." A Brotherhood representative stated that the final results of first-round voting were "representative of the will of the people and will be cherished greatly in the name of the fallen martyrs of the 25 January Revolution." The main objective in the coming period, he said, would be to unite Egypt's various political forces to ensure that "the blood of the martyrs was not spilt in vain." "We thank all of those who voted for Egypt's revolution, change and renaissance," he added. Final vote tallies from all of Egypt's 27 governorates collected by Ahram Online indicate that Mursi took first place, followed by Shafiq and Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi. Voter turnout for the two-day vote has been estimated by officials at 43.4 per cent. According to the preliminary vote count, Mursi took 5,553,097 votes (25.3 per cent); Shafiq 5,210,978 votes (23.7 per cent); Sabbahi 4,739,983 votes (21.6 per cent); Abul-Fotouh 3,936,264 votes (17.9 per cent); and Moussa 2,407,837 (11 per cent).
