EGYPT: Reactions to burning of Shafiq campaign headquarters after election result triggers violence

Record ID: 863521

  • Title: EGYPT: Reactions to burning of Shafiq campaign headquarters after election result triggers violence
  • Date: 30th May 2012
  • Summary: NEWSPAPER WITH HEADLINE READING: "OFFICIALLY: SHAFIQ AND MURSI IN THE RUN-OFF"
  • Embargoed: 14th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • City:
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAD3KEK9KJ3K6TVRB6G8HJ64PH7
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  • Story Text: Demonstrators furious that Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister made it into the run-off for Egypt's presidential election set fire to his campaign headquarters on Monday (May 28), underscoring the divisive outcome of the country's historic vote.
    Former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq, who has described Mubarak as a role model, will face the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi in the run-off in June.
    It is a contest between the two most polarising and controversial figures in the race.
    A group of protesters broke into and vandalised Shafiq's office in the residential district of Dokki before setting it ablaze, state news agency reported.
    An official in the fire service confirmed the blaze had been extinguished without causing any casualties.
    "Everything that's happened is wrong, who set the fire to the building? And for what reason? Everyone can freely elect the person he needs, we need a free government, we need all of these people to be free, but we don't need violence," said protester Hassan Mohamed.
    Several thousand protesters took to the streets across Egypt to demonstrate against the result of the election's first round, which was officially announced on Monday.
    "Well, I agree that people stream into Tahrir Square, but only to complete the demands of the revolution. Everyone in the square now, I am one of them, is not affiliated with any political party, but we need to see our country in a good image. I do not need the remnants of the previous regime to appear again on the political landscape," said another protester, Ahmed Essam.
    Many analysts had predicted that a Shafiq-Mursi run-off could trigger trouble.
    The vote marks a ballot box struggle between a symbol of the military-based autocracy of the last six decades and one of the Islamist movements it had oppressed.
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