CAIRO: Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected President of Egypt on June 24 beating his close rival Mubarak era's premier Ahmed Shafiq who polled 48.3% votes against Mursi's 51.6%.
Mursi, 60 thus became the first popularly elected president of the Arab world's most populous nation. Other candidates were eliminated in the 1st round. They were Hamdeen Sabahy who got 20.7%; Abdul Fotouh 17.5%; Amr Mousa 11.1% votes. Mursi, one of the leaders of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, has pledged that Egypt under his leadership will be inclusive, and he courted secular and Christian voters. He has vowed to uphold the goals of the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak last year and to share power with other parties.
However, his victory appears to be symbolic after the military defanged the post by recently granting itself sweeping powers. Mursi, became the Brotherhood's candidate only after their fist choice Khairat El-Shater was disqualified. Many had written him off as an uncharismatic substitute, saying he would be unable to muster widespread support.
But the powerful Brotherhood mobilised its formidable resources and supporters behind Mursi, who was appointed last year to head its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. Mursi reiterated his pledge of an inclusive presidential institution that 'includes all forces, presidential candidates, women, Salafis and our Coptic brothers.' He pledged to end 'discrimination against any Egyptian based on religion, ethnicity or gender.' During his campaign, Mursi offered a fiery stump speech, pledging a presidency that would be based on Islam but would not be a theocracy.
Mursi was born in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya and graduated with an engineering degree from Cairo University in 1975. He received a PhD from the University of Southern California, where he was an assistant professor, in 1982.
He was a member of an anti-Israel group, the Committee to Resist Zionism, but dedicated much of his time to the Muslim Brotherhood, which first fielded him in a parliamentary election in 2000.
In a 2005 election, which gave the Brotherhood one-fifth of the seats in parliament, he kept his seat. But he was soon arrested and jailed for seven months after participating in protests supporting reformist judges. By the 2010 election, Mursi had become a spokesman for the Islamists and a member of their politburo. He was jailed again on the morning of January 28, 2011, a day after the Brotherhood announced it would join the protests that would topple president Mubarak almost two weeks later.
The Brotherhood believes in establishing an Islamic state gradually and through peaceful means, but Mursi's focus has been mostly on issue affecting the majority of Egyptians since the revolt, such as the deteriorating economy.
