Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi wins Egypt election

After winning Egypt's presidential election, Mohammed Morsi claims to have quit the Muslim Brotherhood. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo, Egypt.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 1:17 p.m. ET: CAIRO -??Mohammed Morsi, the?Muslim Brotherhood-backed candidate,?was declared Egypt's first Islamist president on Sunday with 51.7 percent of last weekend's run-off vote, defeating former Mubarak acolyte Ahmed Shafiq.

?The announcement by the state election committee touched off a jubilant celebration in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where thousands of Brotherhood supporters burst into cheers. The crowd waved national flags and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!" Morsi?will be sworn in on July 1, according to the election timetable.

His victory followed?speculation and anxiety about backroom deals and suspected interference by the ruling military council in determining the outcome in favor of Shafiq, widely seen as the candidate of pre-revolution Egypt.

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In the end, Morsi won 51.7 percent, or 13,230,131 votes, to?48 percent, or 12,347,380 votes, for Shafiq,?the state election committee?announced.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, protest against Egypt's military rulers in Tahrir Square on Saturday.

There were some isolated scuffles in parts of Cairo between rival groups. Several hundred Shafiq supporters in the middle-class suburb of Nasr City chanted "Save Egypt! The Brotherhood will destroy it!,'' while soldiers tried to keep traffic moving.

Morsi resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood party after he was declared president.

Morsi, a 60-year-old, U.S.-educated engineer who spent time in jail under Mubarak, won the first round ballot in May with a little under a quarter of the vote. He has pledged to form an inclusive government to appeal to the many Egyptians, including a large Christian minority, who are anxious over religious rule.?

The military council will retain control of the biggest army in the Middle East, whose closest ally is the United States. Morsi has said he will respect international treaties, notably that signed with Israel in 1979, on which much U.S. aid depends.?

NBC Foreign Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Tahrir Square.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council that has ruled Egypt for more than 16 months, congratulated the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate on Sunday after his presidential election win was confirmed, state television reported.?The report, made in a brief headline, did not give further details.

Morsi "will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions," Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in Cairo. "Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around. This would be a mistake. His challenge is to lead a bitterly divided, fearful, and angry population toward a peaceful democratic outcome, without becoming a reviled scapegoat for continued military rule."

Egypt's ruling armed forces were on alert on Sunday as fears of violence mounted in the final hours before the state election committee named the winner of last weekend's presidential vote.

Egyptians fill Cairo's Tahrir Square in anticipation of a new government being announced. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

Sunday's result -- 500 days after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak -- is historic for the Middle East, but will not end power struggles between the army, Islamists and others over Egypt's future.

The generals, who oversaw Mubarak's departure on Feb. 11, 2011, have repeatedly said, both to Egyptians and to their close U.S. ally, that they will return to barracks and hand over to civilian rule. But they present themselves as guardians of Egypt's security and long-term interests and moved to block the Islamists from taking more than a share of power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s office released a statement Sunday, saying he "appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects its outcome."

"Israel expects continue cooperation with the Egyptian administration on the basis of the peace accord between the two countries, which is in the interest of the two peoples and contributes to regional stability,'' the statement said.

The son of a peasant farmer, Morsi has spoken of a simple childhood in a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia, recalling how his mother taught him prayer and the Koran. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1982 after studying at Cairo University.?

Following his studies in the United States, he returned to Egypt in 1985. Two of his five children hold U.S. citizenship.?

Charlene Gubash, NBC News producer in Cairo, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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