• Mohammed Morsi wins 51.8% of vote, Brotherhood says
• Ahmed Shafiq's campaign challenges result
• Election overshadowed by military power grab
This video shows Mohammed Morsi's supporters celebrating in Tahrir Square this morning.
One imagines that Tahrir Square could see some gatherings of a very different nature in weeks to come, given the Supreme Council of the Armed Force's constitutional amendments, announced last night.
The Egyptian writer, Ahdaf Soueif, says, on Comment is Free, that whoever is declared the next Egyptian president will not be the person most Egyptians want.
We are a nation of 85 million. Fifty million of us have a vote. How many will have voted for this president?
As I write, it's looking as if the turnout for this round will settle at about 15%. Compare this to the 80% turnout in March 2011, when Scaf (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces), which had been running the country since Hosni Mubarak was deposed in 2011, put us through our first "democratic" exercise, a referendum: "Constitution first or parliamentary elections first?" The people queued, celebrated and debated – and Scaf twisted the result and cheated in its implementation to stay in power, then worked to spread chaos and division and to brutalise the nation.
Unsurprisingly, when the time came for parliamentary elections, the electorate, feeling tricked and wrong-footed, reduced its participation to about 50%. And now, clearly, the disillusionment with the mechanics of democracy under Scaf continues. This will be Scaf's proudest achievement: that it has disabused the country of any notion that the machinery of the existing state will deliver the system the majority long for ...
The revolution will continue because neither the old regime nor the Islamist trend in its current form are going to deliver "bread, freedom, social justice". Neither of them are going to validate the sacrifices made by the 1,200 young people murdered by the regime, the 8,000 maimed, the 16,000 court-martialled. As the weekend's spectacle unfolds, thousand of young men are in military jails, many of them on hunger strike.
In the first round of presidential elections three weeks ago, fewer than five million voted for Shafiq – the old regime candidate – and also fewer than five million voted for Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Around 12 million voted for the progressive, secular trend in the revolution – but that didn't count because that vote was divided between five candidates. The progressives had done what they do best: failed to come together and make common cause against a known and clear enemy.
Welcome to Middle East Live. Here's a summary of the latest developments.
Egypt
• The Muslim Bortherhood has claimed victory for its candidate in the presidential election. By the group's count, Mohammed Morsi took 13.2 million votes, or 51.8% with more than 99% of the more than 13,000 poll centres counted. The Brotherhood gave Morsi's opponent - Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq - 48.1% out of 25.5 million votes. Shafiq's campaign challenged the result. Official final results are not due until Thursday.
• The election was overshadowed by the most blatant power grab to date by Egypt's ruling generals. A new constitutional declaration tied the hands of the country's incoming president and cemented military authority over the post-Mubarak era.The powers awarded tot he military include legislative responsibilities, the power to write the new constitution, powers of arrest, control over the armed forces and the right to veto wars.
• The Muslim Brotherhood labelled the military declaration "null and void". Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei described it as a "grave setback for democracy". Human rights activist Hossam Bahgat, said: "Egypt has completely left the realm of the Arab Spring and entered the realm of military dictatorship."
• Shafiq's campaign made more than 100 complaints about ballot rigging by the Muslim Brotherhood. A spokesman said: "The Muslim Brotherhood's systematic election violations prove how they do not believe in freedom of choice and democracy unless it brings them to power."
• The level of voting was reportedly hit by apathy and a boycott campaign, which if confirmed will lead to questions of legitimacy for Egypt's next president, whoever he is. Turnout was reported to be between 15% and 40%. Polling was extended by two hours in a bid to boost turnout. In the first round, 46% of eligible Egyptians voted.
Syria
• Barack Obama will press Vladimir Putin over Russia's role in the Syrian crisis when they meet at the G20 summit today, but there is little hope of Moscow agreeing to tougher UN action against the Assad regime. Suspension of the UN monitoring mission in Syria over the weekend has put added pressure on Obama and Putin to act decisively The seriousness of the rift between Washington and Moscow on Syria was underscored last week when secretary of state Hillary Clinton accused Russia of supplying Assad with attack helicopters. The accusation drew an angry retort from the Kremlin.