Egypt counts votes, Brotherhood says ahead

The Muslim Brotherhood said its candidate was leading the early count in Egypt's first free presidential election that exposed a rift in the nation between supporters of Islamists and backers of men who served deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The Brotherhood said Mohamed Mursi was ahead based on a small sample of results shortly after voting ended in an election that marks the final step in a messy and often bloody transition to democracy, overseen by a military council.

The overall result will not be clear for some time. But the well-organised Brotherhood had been expected to do well.

Egyptian television showed live footage of a methodical counting process from polling stations around the nation of 82 million, with judges watching. Such scenes were unthinkable under Mubarak, when votes were chaotic and rigged.

None of the 12 candidates in the race is expected to secure the more than 50 percent of votes cast to win outright. So Egypt's 50 million eligible voters are likely to go back to the polls for a run-off between the top two on June 16 and 17.

Election officials said turnout in the first round was about 50 percent.

Among Mursi's main rivals are the more secular-minded former Arab League chief and foreign minister Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister and who, like his ex-boss, was a former air force commander.

"We are confident that the next president of Egypt is Mohamed Mursi," said Essam el-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party which secured the biggest bloc in parliament after a vote that ended in January.

If Mursi makes it to the second round and goes on to win a run-off, it will put Islamists in a commanding position in the Arab world's most populous nation, helping redraw the regional map after decades of repression by Mubarak and his predecessors.

Islamists have already swept to power in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, and have had a influential role in a revolt in Syria.