Election Conduct
Final results of Egypt's 2012 presidential election were released in late June, after two rounds of voting and a nail-biting contest narrowly won with 52% of the vote by Mohammad Mursi, candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.
The election was marred by several controversial decisions by judicial authorities, including a ban on several leading contenders for the polls, and the dissolution of a democratically elected parliament just days before the first round. Nevertheless, the election results were largely accepted as legitimate by all parties.
Former US President Jimmy Carter who led an international monitoring mission said the conduct of the election was "encouraging". Violations were noted but no pattern that would favor a particular candidate (see full BBC story).
Voter Turn Out
Voter turn out exceeded 50% in the run-off, falling below the 62% participation rate at the parliamentary polls just six months before.
- Number of registered voters: 50,958,794
- First round turnout: 23,672,236 (46%)
- Runoff turnout: 26,420,763 (51%)
Comparison with the last presidential election under former president Hosni Mubarak is striking, and underlines how the 2012 polls, despite the flawed legal environment, succeeded in creating a more inclusive and democratic political field:
- In 2005, only 7.1 million people cast ballots out of 32 million eligible voters that year
- Mubarak won with around 6.3 million votes (in a country of around 80 million people!)
Candidates
13 candidates were registered to stand, but the contest came down to five top contenders: Mohammad Mursi, Ahmed Shafiq, Amr Moussa, Dr. Abdel Moneim Abou al-Fotouh Abdel, and Hamdeen Sabbahi (see here for profiles of top five candidates).
First Round Results
Aggregate results:
| Mohammad Mursi | Ahmed Shafiq | Hamdeen Sabbahi | Abdel Moneim Abou al-Fotouh Abdel | Amr Moussa |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25% (5,553,097 votes) | 24% (5,210,978) | 22% (4,739,983) | 18% (3,936,264) | 14% (2,407,837) |
Breakdown by governorate:
| Governorate | Mohammad Mursi | Ahmed Shafiq | Hamdeen Sabbahi | Abdel Moneim Abou al-Fotouh Abdel | Amr Moussa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo | 10% | 14% | 21% | 14%% | 16% |
| Giza | 10% | 7% | 9% | 11% | 10% |
| Dakahleya | 7% | 8% | 8% | 6% | 4% |
| Sharkiya | 10% | 12% | 6% | 6% | 3% |
| Alexandria | 5% | 4% | 4% | 10% | 12% |
| Behiera | 7% | 3% | 13% | 8% | 10% |
| Gharbiya | 4% | 8% | 4% | 6% | 5% |
| Minya | 7% | 5% | 1% | 4% | 2% |
| Qalubya | 5% | 8% | 6% | 4% | 6% |
| Sohag | 4% | 3% | 1% | 3% | 4% |
| Monoufiya | 4% | 11% | 2% | 3% | 1% |
| Assiut | 4% | 4% | 1% | 3% | 2% |
| Kafr El-Sheikh | 2% | 1% | 10% | 2% | 1% |
| Qena | 2% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 3% |
| Fayoum | 5% | 1% | 1% | 4% | 1% |
| Bani Suef | 5% | 2% | 1% | 3% | 2% |
| Others | 9% | 6% | 9% | 10% | 15% |
Second Round Results
Aggregate results:
| Mohammad Mursi | Ahmed Shafiq |
|---|---|
| 52% (13,230,131) | 48% (12,347,380) |
(all data from Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC), as reported by Al Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm).
Read about 5 things we learned from Egypt's election results.
Go to Current Situation in the Middle East / Egypt