CAIRO: Former Egypt presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh announced that his campaign would be voting for the Muslim Brotherhood nominee Mohamed Morsi in the second round of elections on June 16 and 17. Aboul Fotuh said they are supporting Morsi to stop finalist Ahmed Shafiq from winning. “Each vote is an individual responsibility and each of us should do what their conscience tells them,” Aboul Fotouh wrote on his campaign's Twitter account on Sunday. Liberal Egyptians and the revolutionary youth found themselves in a predicament after the elections brought about two unlikable candidates. Aboul Fotuh, who came fourth in the first round, after Morsi, Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahi, said the decision came after the MB candidate pledged to form a coalition government whose head is not from the majority party in the lower house of Parliament, meaning the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Islamic group. Aboul Fotouh, who is an ex-MB member who was forced out of the group over his desire to run for the country's top position. The group's post revolution stance was initially not to put forward a candidate, yet they changed their minds in the weeks leading up to the elections and first chose Khairat al-Shater to run. Shater was later disqualified for being imprisoned by the state. Many activists in the country have decided to boycott the elections or void their vote. On Sunday, a campaign titled “Mobteloon,” or “voiding our votes,” was announced to encourage Egyptians to not give their vote to either candidate and to write a personal message on the ballot refusing both. Some activists and rights groups already announced their support online for the initiative.
