Candidate’s Offices Burn Amid Egypt Demonstrations

If found to be arson, the fire would be the most destructive act of election-related violence since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster as president. Interior Ministry officials said they had not yet determined the exact cause of the fire, although they arrested one person inside the building. They did not disclose the person’s identity or possible motives.
The fire broke out a few hours after the election commission confirmed on Monday that Ahmed Shafik, the former prime minister and a former air force general, will face Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in the runoff scheduled for June 16 and 17 to choose Egypt’s first freely elected president.
Several losing candidates had claimed electoral fraud, but outside observers said the election appeared valid, and the election commission rejected the appeals.
Mr. Shafik’s supporters express hope that he can restore order to Egypt while checking the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. His critics say they fear he will bring back the authoritarianism of the Mubarak government.
The recently elected Islamist-dominated Parliament had passed a law barring top Mubarak officials like Mr. Shafik from the presidency. But the election commission set it aside for review by the Supreme Constitutional Court. The commission said Monday that it would have the final word over the law’s application even if the court approved it.
Groups of a few hundred or more people in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities on Monday evening protested Mr. Shafik’s candidacy. It was unclear if his headquarters in a villa in an affluent Cairo neighborhood was attacked during a protest.
The fire was put out within a few hours, and afterward, lights were on and campaign workers were visible inside the building. Outside, thousands of people gathered in the streets. No injuries were reported.
The electoral commission said Mr. Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, won 5.76 million votes and Mr. Shafik 5.5 million votes. The runner-up, Hamdeen Sabahi, a Nasserite socialist, received 4.82 million votes. A narrow majority of voters cast ballots for other alternative candidates who, like Mr. Sabahi, were fiercely critical of both the Brotherhood and the Mubarak government, leaving many voters unhappy with the two candidates who survived until the runoff.
The commission said about 46 percent of Egypt’s approximately 50 million eligible voters turned out for the election, roughly 20 percentage points down from the parliamentary elections that ended in January. The low figure may have reflected a lack of enthusiasm for the candidates, or the brevity of the campaign, which hampered efforts to mobilize voters.
Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting.