CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate and a veteran of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime will face each other in a runoff election for Egypt's presidency, according to first-round results Friday.
The divisive showdown dismayed many Egyptians who fear either one means an end to any democratic gains produced by last year's uprising.
More than a year after protesters demanding democracy toppled Mubarak, the contest between the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi and former air force chief and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq looked like a throwback to the Mubarak days - a rivalry between a military-rooted strongman promising a firm hand to ensure stability and Islamists vowing to implement religious law.
"The worst possible scenario," said Ahmed Khairy, spokesman for the Free Egyptians Party, one of the secular, liberal parties that emerged last year.
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Speaking to the Al-Ahram daily, he described Morsi as an "Islamic fascist" and Shafiq as a "military fascist."
He said he did know which candidate to endorse in the June 16-17 vote. Many Egyptians face the same dilemma, with no figure representing a middle path of reforming a corrupt police state without lurching onto the divisive path of strict Islamic law.
The match between Morsi and Shafiq will likely be a heated one. Each has die-hard supporters but is also loathed by significant sectors of the population.
The first-round race, held Wednesday and Thursday, turned out close. By Friday evening, counts from stations around the country reported by the state news agency gave Morsi 25.3 percent and Shafiq 24.9 percent with a difference of fewer than 100,000 votes.
More than 40 percent of the vote went to candidates seen as more in the spirit of the revolution that toppled Mubarak, that is, neither from the Brotherhood nor from the remnants of the old regime.
In particular, those votes went to leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, who narrowly came in third in a surprisingly strong showing of 21.5 percent, and a moderate Islamist who broke with the Brotherhood, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh.
The Brotherhood, which already dominates parliament and hopes the presidency can seal its rise to power, scrambled to try to draw the revolution vote to its side. It invited other candidates and revolutionary groups to meet today to "save the nation and the revolution" ahead of an expected fierce race.
