CAIRO (Reuters) – The two apparent survivors in Egypt’s presidential race tried to gather support on Sunday from voters dismayed at what many see as a painful second-round choice between an Islamist apparatchik and a throwback to Hosni Mubarak’s era.

Both men are seeking to soften those images, lay claim to the mantle of the “revolution” that toppled Mubarak 15 months ago, and appeal to the many Egyptians who picked more centrist figures in last week’s first round.

Hatem Begato, head of the electoral committee, said it was considering complaints about the voting filed by four candidates – second-placed Ahmed Shafiq, who was Mubarak’s last prime minister, leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

“The (election) results will be announced on Monday or Tuesday at the latest,” Begato told Reuters by telephone.

Figures cited by state media and party campaigns put Mohamed Mursi, an obscure Brotherhood insider, in a likely runoff with Shafiq, a bluff ex-air force chief who has sworn to restore security.

But Sabahy, who came a close third, challenged his placing. “We have information that conscripts voted illegally,” he told a raucous crowd of supporters in Cairo late on Saturday.

The polarized outcome has even led to suggestions – swiftly rejected by the Brotherhood – that Mursi should withdraw to allow Sabahy to go through to the second round.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday its candidate in Egypt’s first free presidential vote would fight a run-off next month with ex-air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister of deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

This week’s first-round vote has polarised Egyptians between those determined to avoid handing the presidency back to a man from Mubarak’s era and those fearing an Islamist monopoly of ruling institutions. The run-off will be held on June 16 and 17.

The election marks a crucial step in a messy and often bloody transition to democracy, overseen by a military council that has pledged to hand power to a new president by July 1.

The second round threatens further turbulence. Opponents of Shafiq have vowed to take to the streets if he is elected.

But to supporters, Shafiq’s military background offers reassurance that he can restore security, a major demand of the population 15 months after Mubarak’s ouster.

A victory for the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi could worsen tensions between resurgent Islamists and the powerful army, which sees itself as the guardian of the state.

Christians and secular liberals anxious about their own freedoms and the fate of Egypt’s vital tourist industry will fret about a promised Brotherhood push for Islamic law.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The prospect of Ahmed Shafiq succeeding Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt is a nightmare for revolutionaries and Islamists, but a security blanket for those wary of change.

Shafiq, who served briefly as Mubarak’s last premier, is a divisive military figure who will contest next month’s run-off vote for the presidency against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, according to a count by the Islamist group.

A Brotherhood official said Shafiq, a former air force commander, had come second to Mursi in the opening round of Egypt’s first free presidential election this week.

He said that with most votes counted, Mursi had won 25 percent, Shafiq 23 percent, a rival Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh 20 percent and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy 19 percent. The two top candidates will contest a run-off on June 16 and 17.

The bluff, straight-talking Shafiq came from behind in a race in which Amr Moussa, former head of the Arab League, and ex-Brotherhood member Aboul Fotouh were early favorite.

His late surge reflected the anxiety of many Egyptians about a breakdown of law and order and the often violent political disputes that have punctuated an army-led transition since a popular revolt ousted Mubarak on February 11, 2011.

It also rested on the fear, not least among Egypt’s 10 percent Christian minority, of rising Islamist power.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday its candidate was leading the early count in Egypt’s first free presidential election that exposed a rift in the nation between supporters of Islamists and backers of men who served deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The Brotherhood said Mohamed Mursi was ahead based on a small sample of results shortly after voting ended in an election that marks the final step in a messy and often bloody transition to democracy, overseen by a military council.

The overall result will not be clear for some time. But the well-organized Brotherhood had been expected to do well.

Egyptian television showed live footage of a methodical counting process from polling stations around the nation of 82 million, with judges watching. Such scenes were unthinkable under Mubarak, when votes were chaotic and rigged.

None of the 12 candidates in the race is expected to secure the more than 50 percent of votes cast to win outright. So Egypt’s 50 million eligible voters are likely to go back to the polls for a run-off between the top two on June 16 and 17.

Election officials said turnout in the first round was about 50 percent.

Among Mursi’s main rivals are the more secular-minded former Arab League chief and foreign minister Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister and who, like his ex-boss, was a former air force commander.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who served under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

The contest is a novelty for a nation where elections during the 30-year rule of a man some called “Pharaoh” were thinly attended rigmaroles in which the result was a foregone conclusion.

This time, many of Egypt’s 50 million eligible voters were already queuing before polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) to determine who would lead the country when the generals who have overseen a transition marred by violence, protests and political deadlock formally hand over by July 1.

Yet some were still unsure who to vote for even as they headed out to cast their ballots.

“I will vote today, no matter what, it is a historic thing to do, although I don’t really know who I will vote for,” said Mahmoud Morsy, 23, who then said he would probably pick the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohamed Mursi.

Voters were blitzed by three weeks of official campaigning, which ended on Sunday, and Egypt held its first U.S.-style televised presidential debate. Newspapers carried interviews and campaign adverts. Banners and posters festoon the streets.

Although official campaigning was over, candidates made a final push to get out the vote. Half a dozen minibuses plastered with “Yes to Amr Moussa” – the former Arab League chief bidding for office – offered free rides to polling stations.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel has become a punchbag for politicians vying for votes in Egypt’s presidential race, playing on popular antipathy in Egypt towards its neighbor, but the realities of office are likely to ensure a 33-year-old peace treaty is not jeopardized.

An ex-air force commander in the race boasts of bringing down Israeli aircraft in 1973, the last of Egypt’s four wars with Israel. One Islamist often refers to Israel as the “Zionist entity”, rather than by name, and describes it as an “enemy”.

A leftist candidate pledges to support the Palestinian resistance against Israel, where officials have watched Egypt’s political turmoil with increasing wariness after the downfall of Mubarak who oversaw a cold yet stable peace.

None of the candidates want to tear up the document signed in 1979 but they repeatedly warn in rallies and debates it should be reviewed. Many of them grumble at provisions in the U.S.-brokered deal they say are biased in Israel’s favor.

Yet, beyond the bluster of the campaign trail, the next president’s in-tray will be full of more pressing issues such reviving an economy on the ropes.

He will also preside over a nation where the entrenched establishment of the army and security services who kept the peace secure is still in tact, putting a brake on any actions that could put the deal at risk.

“Of course Israel is an enemy. It occupied land, it threatened our security. It is an entity that has 200 nuclear warheads,” Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh said in a TV debate when asked about Israel, referring to a nuclear arsenal Israel is believed to possess but neither confirms nor denies having.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The face of Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister beams down from huge billboards on major highways promising “Egypt for everyone”, but Ahmed Shafiq is polarizing voters ahead of next week’s presidential poll.

For some, his government experience and background as a former air force commander promise an end to the turbulence since Mubarak was ousted more than 15 months ago and a military council took over.

But Shafiq is a lightning rod for criticism for those who see him as a holdover from the old era.

This week he fended off charges that he was involved in selling land allocated for armed forces personnel to Mubarak’s sons. Last month, he narrowly evaded an attempt by the Islamist-dominated parliament to disqualify him from the race.

“We need a military man like Shafiq who knows Egypt well and will be able to work with the military leadership to sail this country to safety,” said Ahmed Shehata, 35, a former member of Mubarak’s defunct National Democratic Party (NDP) at a rally at Jabal Asfar, on the impoverished outskirts of Cairo.

His critics say Mubarak-era figures, or “feloul” (remnants)as they are derisively called in Arabic, have helped Shafiq snap up some of the most prominent billboards in the capital.

At least two parties, dominated by former NDP members, say they back Shafiq. A member of one, the Egypt Freedom Party, said it was using former NDP branch offices for the campaign.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Near the rock-strewn scene of a bloody anti-army protest, Islamist, liberal and other politicians sat with ruling generals this month to haggle over Egypt’s future after its first presidential vote since Hosni Mubarak’s fall.

At stake in the Defense Ministry meeting, held just hours after 11 people were killed in another flare-up marring Egypt’s transition to democracy, was who would write a new constitution and what powers would Mubarak’s successor have.

No clarity has emerged.

When voting starts on May 23 and 24 in a presidential race that broadly pits Islamists against men who at one time or another served under Mubarak, Egyptians still won’t know the next head of state’s permanent job description.

“It’s a poker game,” said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians party, describing the talks he attended on May 2 between political party leaders and military ruler Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who is also defense minister.

The closed-door bargaining is a far cry from the adrenalin-fuelled street protests that toppled Mubarak in just 18 days.

Fifteen months later, the revolt that gripped the world and inspired Arabs has stumbled under the transition managed by the generals who took charge when Mubarak, a former air force commander, was forced out.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s military rulers on Saturday imposed an overnight curfew and deployed soldiers around the Defence Ministry to deter a repeat of Friday’s deadly violence, less than three weeks before a presidential vote.

One soldier died and almost 400 people were wounded in Friday’s clashes, the second time in a week that protests over the army’s handling of Egypt’s troubled transition from army rule to civilian government have turned violent.

The military imposed a 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew (2100 GMT to 0500 GMT) in the Abbasiya district around the defense ministry for the second straight day, according to a military source.

The streets were calm on Saturday as cleaners swept up rocks and other projectiles hurled by protestors during the previous night’s violence. Troops responded with fired teargas and charged the crowd to drive them from the ministry.

Eleven people were killed in disturbances on Wednesday.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 18 journalists had been assaulted, injured or arrested while covering the clashes.

“We call on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to identify the attackers and bring them to justice immediately, as well as to release journalists in custody,” Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement issued late on Friday.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The 75-year-old former head of the Arab League has vowed to serve just one four-year term if elected Egypt’s president, but Amr Moussa’s Islamist rivals, who see him as a relic from Hosni Mubarak’s era, say he doesn’t even deserve that long.

Moussa, who became popular with ordinary Egyptians as head of the Cairo-based League, is tipped as a front-runner in next month’s election.

Many Egyptians fondly remember how he regularly slammed Israeli policies and in 2003 warned against the U.S-led invasion of Iraq, saying it would “open the gates of hell”.

In 2001, around the time he resigned from his post as Egypt’s foreign minister to take up the League job – amid speculation he was pushed by a president who felt Moussa was overshadowing him – an Egyptian artist wrote a song that caught on with the lyrics: “I hate Israel … I love Amr Moussa”.

Yet however popular he remains, the biggest challenge for the man who describes himself as a liberal nationalist may be to convince Egyptians that he can bring change and that he is not part of the old, discredited order.

“The question is not old guard or new guard. The question is either you were part of the corrupt people that have done a lot of harm to the country or among the people who have worked and done their duty according to the highest standard they could do,” Moussa told Reuters last year early in campaigning.

Moussa has since toured the length and breadth of the country, waging one of the longest campaigns among any of the 13 presidential candidates now battling in an historic election race that begins with a first round vote on May 23-24.