Emad Abdel Ghafour, head of the Salafi-led Nour Party, has rejected calls for taking to streets if former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq wins the presidential election.
In an interview with the London based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper Saturday, Abdel Ghafour said “It does not make sense that we accept the premises, and then do not accept the results."
He said the first round of elections was fair and clean and that the “violations that occurred during the election are so few compared to the violations of the elections in Mubarak's era, when fraud was the base and integrity was an exception.”
“For the first time in Egypt's modern history, an election is held with a high degree of transparency."
According to unofficial figures broadcast on state TV, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy won 25.5 percent in the first round, followed by Shafiq with 24.8 percent. Sabbahi came third with 20.5 percent while moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh won 17.8 percent.
Shafiq, a general and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, will face Morsy in the 16-17 June run-off vote.
Abdel Ghafour said that his party will deal with the next president even if he is not Islamist.
Emerging as the second-largest political force in the country following the removal of Mubarak, the Nour Party won more than a fifth of the seats in the People’s Assembly.
In April the party endorsed Abouel Fotouh as president.
Asked whether the party will support Morsy in the run-off, Abdel Ghafour said it hasn’t decided on the matter.
On Friday the Jama'a al-Islamiya announced its support of Morsy, saying that Shafiq is a counter-revolutionary candidate, and the group will take whatever measures possible to prevent a counter-revolutionary from reaching the presidency.
