CAIRO — Mohammed Morsi, a twice-jailed member of the once banned Muslim Brotherhood, was declared president of Egypt on Sunday, becoming this country’s first civilian and democratically elected leader, the region’s first Islamist president and the new official face of
CAIRO — Mohammed Morsi, a twice-jailed member of the once banned Muslim Brotherhood, was declared president of Egypt on Sunday, becoming this country’s first civilian and democratically elected leader, the region’s first Islamist president and the new official face of the 17-month-old uprising that has demanded, but not yet created, revolutionary change here.
The challenges ahead for Morsi are daunting. He is taking over a divided populace and sharing power with a military council that has governed Egypt directly or in the shadows since modern Egypt was created with the 1952 overthrow of the country’s monarchy. With no permanent constitution and the elected Parliament ordered dissolved 10 days ago, Morsi’s duties and powers are uncertain in a state where corruption and institutions established under the three-decade rule of Hosni Mubarak remain solidly in place,.
In his first televised address, in a state media building from which he was once banned, , flanked by presidential guards who once served those who jailed him, Morsi delivered a message of national reconciliation. At one point he begged for unity. He praised nearly every major constituency and vowed to serve them all: the revolutionaries, the police, army, women, businessmen and religious leaders. He even called the Mubarak-appointed judiciary “independent.”
“I would not be standing here without the sacrifice of the martyrs,” Morsi said, a reference to those who had died during the 18 days of demonstrations that led to Mubarak’s resignation from the presidency. “I will serve all of Egypt. The revolution continues until we achieve all our aims.”
And in a nod to the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel, he said he was committed to “international agreements” and to peace.
Egypt entered a new chapter as a nation with a history of autocratic rule that goes back thousands of years. Despite a week filled with fears of a rigged outcome, it appeared that the ruling military council had not obstructed the will of the people. Egypt had held a legitimate democratic election.
The election commission said Morsi won 13.2 million votes to Ahmed Shafik’s 12.3 million. The 52 to 48 percent result was about what Morsi had claimed hours after the polls closed a week earlier. Before the announcement, the commission presented an hourlong explanation of its findings, including details on why it disqualified two votes for one of the candidates in a nation of 26 million voters.
Morsi’s supporters were exuberant, thrilled not just by the results but also by the fact that they clearly had not been rigged.
“I knew Morsi won but we feared the military council would rig the results,” said Ahmed Hussein, 28, an accountant and fervent Morsi supporter who had spent two days in the Tahrir Square, which was the center of the uprising that forced Mubarak from office.
Morsi supporters erupted in cheers at 4:29 p.m., when the results were announced.
The revelry was without restraint. People screamed, dropped to their knees in prayer and fired off fireworks, even though the sun was still up. Morsi supporters showered the crowds with water to fend off the scorching summer heat. Revelers remained well into the evening.
Morsi’s uncertain mandate was evident, however, as was his lack of appeal to the revolutionaries whose fervor had toppled Mubarak. Revolutionaries said they were more pleased that Shafik, a retired air force general and Mubarak’s last prime minister, had lost than Morsi won. And they were aware that the election did not mark real reforms.
“I feel the same way I did when Mubarak resigned,” Ahmed Maher, who led the 6th of April revolutionary movement, said Sunday night. “We will continue to stay in Tahrir until we find a solution for the constitutional amendments. No one expected the results. When (the military council) saw the pressure of protesters in Tahrir, it was difficult for them to rig the elections.”
A shopkeeper just a block away from the square expressed tepid enthusiasm for change.
“We haven’t tried the Brotherhood before,” said Mohammed Ahmed, 39. “We haven’t had a chance to try something else.”
During the campaign, Morsi promised to be a centrist ruler, despite his Islamist background and his role at the head of the nation’s most powerful and most divisive political organization. He promised to build a coalition government, pledged that his prime minister would be an independent and that his government would include Christians. He vowed not to turn Egypt into a theocracy, though he said Islam should provide governing principles.
On the military, he has said he would not shield its vast budget from the public but at the same time suggested he would seek the military council’s advice on who the defense minister should be.
Morsi has called for Egypt no longer to be subordinate to the United States, suggesting that he would confront Egypt’s close ties to America under Mubarak. In a statement, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the U.S. hopes that the government under Morsi presidency would respect human rights and the minority Coptic Christians.
Within minutes of claiming the presidency, Morsi met a campaign pledge and resigned from the Brotherhood, though it seemed to be a largely symbolic move. Once called the “spare tire” since he became a candidate only after the first choice was disqualified, some consider him as a puppet of a party dreaming of an Islamist-governed Egypt.
Special correspondent Mohannad Sabry contributed to this report.
