Mursi ahead in Egypt vote, Brotherhood says

CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi leads his rival Ahmed Shafiq in Egypt's presidential vote, the Islamist group said on Monday, after votes from 81 percent of polling stations were tallied.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood's formidable network of observers are watching vote counts across the country and transmitting tallies to the organisation as they come in.

Brotherhood official Khaled al-Qazaz said ballots from 81.7 percent of Egypt's 13,100 polling stations had been tallied so far, and Mursi was leading with 52.49 percent of the vote to Shafiq's 47.5 percent.

Over 20 million votes have been counted so far, he said, with around 10.5 million going to Mursi, compared to 9.5 million for Shafiq.

The figures suggested the race would remain too close to call until the counting was complete.

Egypt's electoral commission is not expected to announce the official results of the poll until June 21, but the unofficial final results are likely to be known by early on Monday morning.

Officials at Shafiq's campaign had no comment on the preliminary results, and did not immediately release its own figures.

Some 50 million Egyptians were eligible to vote in the poll held June 16-17, a run-off that followed a first round election on May 23-24.

The country's electoral commission extended voting by two hours on Sunday, in part to allow people to cast ballots in the relative evening cool.

Before polls closed, commission officials said turnout appeared to be lower than in the first round, when 46 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. (AFP)