Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Egypt’s presidential election, has reached out to assure women and Christians that he would guarantee their rights if elected in an effort to broaden his support base before a tight run-off vote on June 16th.
The Islamist candidate will go head to head with runner-up Ahmed Shafiq, a former military man widely seen as the standard bearer of the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Each garnered roughly a quarter of the votes cast.
The two were seen as the most polarising candidates in a field of 12 contenders.
Their success has dismayed many Egyptians who feel they have to make a difficult choice between unpalatable alternatives – an Islamist state or the return of the old order.
The challenge the finalists face is to reach a broad swathe of voters occupying the middle ground in order to expand their support beyond their core constituencies.
Liberal and left-wing forces have been meeting to decide which candidate they will back and are expected to welcome Mr Morsi’s comments but to demand concrete guarantees of his intentions.
Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which accounts for an estimated 10 per cent of the population, already complains of discrimination. It fears further marginalisation under Islamist rule.
Mr Morsi also said the rights of working women would be protected and there would be no attempts to impose any dress code. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012)