Muslim Brotherhood seeks allies ahead of presidential run-off

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Muslim Brotherhood is reaching out to rivals including politicians knocked out of the presidential race in an attempt to rally support around its own candidate who faces a runoff against Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, Reuters reported.

Warning of "determined efforts to recreate the old regime," the Brotherhood said parties that supported the uprising that swept Mubarak from power must unite "so that the revolution is not stolen from us."

The Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, beat the rest of the field in the first round of the election, with Shafiq a close second, according to an unofficial Brotherhood tally of the vote count.

The outcome sets up a June 16-17 ballot box struggle between a former air force commander who has described Mubarak as a role model and an Islamist group the deposed leader dealt with mostly as an enemy of the state.

In an apparent overture to the group he is set to face in the runoff, Shafiq told Egyptian television on Friday, May 25 he saw no problem with the idea of a Muslim Brotherhood-led government if he were elected president. between a continuation of rule by men from a military background and a government led by a long-oppressed Islamist group with broad regional influence.

It is a choice that many Egyptians are not relishing, either out of fear that a Shafiq victory would mark a blow to hoped-for reform or out of worry a Brotherhood victory would steer the country towards fundamentalist rule.