Mohamed Mursi early on Monday June 18 claimed a 52 per cent lead in returns.

The candidate of the Moslem Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in last Sunday’s presidential runoff election in Egypt, Mohamed Mursi has pledged to be president for all Egyptians, promising not to seek revenge.

The pledge came after Mursi early yesterday June 18 claimed victory in the poll with a 52 per cent lead as against 48 per cent for his rival, Ahmed Shafiq with most votes counted.  He thanked God for guiding Egyptians to choose what he described as the path of freedom, democracy and uniting the people for a better future. Supporters later in the day thronged the streets to celebrate their candidate’s victory.

The BBC quoted a pro-Brotherhood TV station as reporting that Mursi had won over 13 million votes while State TV reported that he was ahead in preliminary results. A Brotherhood official, Khaled al-Qazaz said ballots from 81.7 per cent of Egypt's 13,100 polling stations had been tallied and Mursi was leading with 52.49 per cent of the vote against Shafiq's 47.5 per cent. Some 50 million voters registered for the election.

Reacting, Shafiq's campaign official, Mahmud Barakeh said the party completely rejected the victory claim by Mursi, saying it amounted to a hijacking of election results, the AFP news agency reported. The spokesperson for Shafiq's campaign, Yasser Makarim said about 11 per cent of the votes were yet to be counted, claiming that it was Shafiq who was leading by 51 per cent to Mursi’s 49 per cent. The Press Trust of India news agency said the Brotherhood's claims appeared to be closer to other unofficial tallies from local and international media.

The AFP news agency reported that doubts were cast over the effectiveness of a future civilian presidency after the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, SCAF issued an amended constitutional document late Sunday evening, granting itself sweeping powers. These include legislative control after a court last week declared the elected Parliament invalid.

Some 50 million Egyptians were eligible to vote last weekend following an inconclusive first round election on May 23-24. The country's electoral commission extended voting by two hours on Sunday. Before polls closed, commission officials said turnout appeared to be lower than the first round’s 46 per cent. Official results of the election are expected by Thursday June 21, 2012. The new president is expected to take up office by the end of the month.