Egyptians must focus as two finalists continue the campaign for the Egyptian Presidency

After two days of voting, preliminary results in the Egyptian Presidential Election are in. The Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohamed Morsi, and Amed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last Prime Minister are the two top vote getters. The other 11 candidates have been eliminated. The top two will face off in a runoff election on 16 and 17 June.

Morsi is a metallurgical engineer and engineering professor turned political activist and dedicated leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who answered the call of the organization to be the candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party after their first candidate was disqualified.

Shafiq, a former air force general, held many high-profile governmental positions during the Mubarak era. He is seen as a counterrevolutionary force who, if elected, would retain many attributes of the former regime.

The Freedom and Justice Party has called on all Egyptians to resist the remnants of the Mubarak era, that is, Shafiq, and to unite to protect the revolution and fulfill its goals.Meanwhile, Shafiq warned that Islamists would drag Egypt into the "dark ages" and threaten the rights of women and Christians.

The liberals and progressives who organized and executed the revolution feel that neither candidate imbraces the spirit of the revolution that brought an end to the Mubarak era, and are not likely to be content with either candidate.

To complicate matters even futher, on Saturday, 2 June, former President Hosni Mubarak and his interior minister Habib El-Adly were handed life sentences for their role in the killing of peaceful protesters during last year’s uprising. Six of El-Adly’s assistants were acquitted of similar charges. In a separate corruption case, Mubarak, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, and Egyptian business tycoon Hussein Salem were all found not guilty. After the verdicts were announced, thousands of protesters returned to Tahrir Square and other public squares throughout the country to denounce the verdicts and question the integrity of Judge Ahmed Refaat who presided over what was described as the 'Trial of the Century'.

Meanwhile, the People’s Assembly (Parliament) and the SCAF (Military leaders) have been arguing about the formation of the Constituent Assembly which will be responsible for drafting a new constitution which will redefine the powers of the president.

In our opinion, the trial and the arguments over the Constituent Assembly distract from the primary responsibility of the Egyptians to focus on the presidential election in order to turn out to vote and to make an informed decision on 16 and 17 June. We hope that they will be able to focus and will vote in larger numbers than turned out for the frost round. The future of Egyptian democracy depends on this!