Egypt OFFICIALLY declares its first democratically elected president: Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood will carry the revolution forward...

February 11, 2011 - Hosni Mubarak resigns after a 30 year dictatorial reign as president of Egypt.

June 24, 2012 - Muhammad Morsi is declared the first democratically elected president of Egypt in history. 

After a tense runoff election, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, was officially declared the president elect of Egypt earlier today.

A week ago, I wrote that Morsi was the predicted candidate. Almost immediately, however, Morsi's opponent - Ahmad Shafik, the last prime minister under Mubarak's rule - was also claiming to have won the election. Both sides were accusing the other of election fraud. And with a margin of only about a million votes, it was a close call. 

Today, Egyptians waited with baited breath as election officials discussed the results before announcing the outcome. Apparently the announcement came 50 minutes late... what they still had to discuss is anyone's guess. But the upshot sent Tahrir Square into a joyous uproar, on a scale not seen since Mubarak stepped down from power over 16 months ago. 

After a very anxious week and a half, many Egyptians, including myself and my parents, are breathing a sigh of deep relief. But it's important to remember that not all of Egypt is celebrating Morsi's victory. Consider that of the 80 million (on the record) people living in Egypt, 50 million are eligible to vote, and 50% of the voting population participated in this runoff election. Out of that 25 million that voted, Morsi won 52% of the votes. That comes to about 13 million votes for Morsi - around 16% of Egypt's population. Still enough of a support base to get started, but we must accept that Morsi will not be able to take a single action without facing a good deal of opposition. 

The upshot of this election does not mean that Egypt will finally calm down, but it does mean that some serious clashes were probably averted. If Shafik had won, things would have become very volatile. On a personal note, I may have had to delay returning to Egypt for the fifth time since I was evacuated a year and a half ago. But with the Muslim Brotherhood taking the helm of Egypt's new government, and the spirit of the revolution alive and well, I have no major concern for traveling safely to Egypt. On the contrary, I am elated to be headed there in a week. 

It means a great deal to me that Egypt's first democratically elected president was announced a week before I will finally return to Egypt for the first time since I was evacuated when the revolution began. I cannot wait to get there and begin to understand Egypt's transformation first hand...

Egypt Elects Its First President: Muslim Brotherhood Will Carry the Revolution Forward

Today is another historic day for Egypt:

Muhammad Mursi, the candidate representing the Muslim Brotherhood, is now the predicted winner of the run-off presidential election, which took place in Egypt yesterday. His opponent, Ahmed Shafiq, the former prime minister under Mubarak, trails behind Mursi by only about 1 million votes (roughly 12.5 million vs. 11.5 million), with 96% of the votes counted already.

We are breathing a sigh of relief. Mursi's election indicates that (the majority of) the country is choosing to move forward and continue with the revolution. If the former prime minister had won, things would have gotten ugly, and progress would have been slow and perhaps backwards for a while. Regardless of whether we agree 100% with every view of the Muslim Brotherhood, they are the only group capable of carrying the revolution forward right now. They have the organization, the numbers, the resources, and the momentum. Thank goodness the outcome of this historic election was a step forward.

This is a major blow to Mubarak's remaining supporters, including his supporters in the court, who last week pulled a coup to nullify the recently elected parliament. In their power play, they tried to argue that the parliamentary elections held in November 2011 were illegitimate because they didn't give independent candidates fair representation on the ballots - even though it had been agreed prior to the election that two-thirds of the candidates would be running under a party and one-third would be running independently. The parliament astutely claimed that the decision to retain the current parliament body or not rests with the people, not the court or the military. The Brotherhood has also said that it would not recognize the court's attempted dissolution of the parliament.

We'll see how the court responds, but in the meantime, we can celebrate Egypt's First Democratically Elected President, and rest assured that the revolution continues...