>> translator: subcommitte in 15 governments and the right ballot papers, 210,000 plus that this -- i did not reach the ballot boxes, in which only one case in which the ballot box was

put aside. and to also to cancel these votes of this ballot box. and since the results came to the commission, before it's received any challenges to starting to -- the votes, starting with the subcommittees, and after examining this, there were some mistakes. in addition, six committed. there were three committees in one province who did not -- had nobody voting there. committee number ten. and subcommittee three.

12 and 14th, subcommittee four. there was only one person who voted in this committee. >> if you're just joining us, we are hi a listening to a long, dail and sometimes plaintive announcement from the egyptian electoral commission whose chief is slowly describing the electoral process while the entire nation waits and while we wait to hear who egypt's next president will be. we're waiting for the announcement of the election results of egypt's presidential runoff while thousands gather in tahrir square. the entire country waiting to find out where a year and a half of the arab spring, of the painful and sometimes deadly path to democracy, will take them. we're continuing to listen.

>> translator: the majority of the voters are muslims. these committees did not -- did not vote in the first round. to get in touch with the head of the committees, they confirmed that what happened -- the same thing happened in the election of the parliament. and the consultative councils. there was a presence with that number of electorates. the committee -- the commission received six -- there were challenges and changes to come

to this. 464 -- 65. 36 were received by the commission before -- before wednesday night. before friday -- thursday night -- thurs morning. then the commission to look to examine these challenges for three days. in which it asked the ballot paper of many committee and to sort out the votes once again. and it ended with accepting some challenges and so many challenges were canceled. but the commission also -- it looked at two specific challenges. the first one about forgery of

the ballot paper by indicating for one specific candidate. in some of the printing companies. some of them which -- some of them claim that it's 1 million ballot papers that's been distributed. also the second one, a challenge about stopping -- ting the koic chriss from reaching polling stations. a that proved these challenges or one of them is enough to cast -- to cast the doubt about the process election in that area.

and it reflects hugely about the popular will to the ex to call -- to call to council the that area. the commission also asked for all the documents and asked information from security, and the committee did not receive except one -- one source of informati information. the rest did not supply us with any information. with the information that was given to the commission, it fits the completion as follows. marking -- taking the box of one

candidate, specific candidate -- >> on a red letter day for egyptians, democracy, a remarkably detailed and frequently defensi accou of the work of the country electoral commission. you're watching live pictures, and we have been hearing live the announcement that we have been expectingm the electoral commission, but not the news we've been waiting for. the electoral commissi w d to present the results of egypt's presidential runoff, delayed since thursday, slated to be announced a little bit more than an hour ago. but we have been hearing the head of the election commission describe instead the work of the commission since it began its work more than a year ago. and the chnges it has faced. meanwhile we and those thousands of people on the right of your screen in tahrir square have been waiting to find out who egypt's next ruler will be. our cairo bureau chief ben wedeman and chief international correspondent christiane amanpour have been waiting along with us. ben, did you know this was coming? it sounds really like a defense

of the election commission more than the results itself? >> the results will come, jonathan, we need to stick in there. let me just stress one thing. this is part of the new egypt. officials feel obliged to explain why they acted in the way they did. and sort of lay it all out as as to lee millions of cast their ballot. in fact, just a few weeks ago, we were waiting for a presidential debate, the first ever, that ever happened here in egypt before the first round. and it was the same thing. they explned to viewers on television why they had picked the candidates to go on this debate. what was the process where the decision -- theions qstwere drawn up. so this is really within the ntext of a new hopefully more transparent egypt where officials have to actually account for themselves. d account for their work. >> and i suppose, ben, also, this pain staking description is

also to lay the groundwork for no further challenges. so that both parties, both sides in this country, will accept, they hope, the decision of this election now that they are in the process still of laying it all out. that is also a interesting concept. of course, people power is showing itse to an extent in tahrir square behind us. as we've been saying all day, this is the muslim brotherhood group which have been busing their people in for the last several days. to be very frank, it's not a massive group of people. we've seen tahrir square filled and flooded many, many times much more impressively over the last several days and of course over the last 18 months or so. there is a much smaller group of supporters for ahmed shafiq who are gathered in a hotel closer to the airport. those are his supporters. again, we're really waiting to see. talk about edge of your seat. it's not just the people in the squares. it's people in all these homes and hous w a either watching television or listening

to the radio. it's people in capitals all over the rld. it's people who really want to know what will be the result of this historic election hear. i think, you know, bev been talking so much about this. there is a deep sense of disappointment as well. we've heard one of egypt's primary writers tweet out that if, for instance, ahmed shafiq, who is the o guard, the military supported pson, t one who is right-hand man to hosni mubarak, if he actually wins this election what was this relution for? we've heard equally peopl very disappointed with the muslim brotherhood. they've seen them in control of parliament for the last several months and they haven't achieved much to be proud of or much to make a meaningful difference in people's lives. so i thin tt for the people here, this has been kind of a bad choice/bad choice election. >> it certainly has. i mean, i'm just looking out. it's 4:00 p.m. in cairo on a sunday afternoon. the roads should be full of cars. it should be rush hour. and what we're seeing is actually very few cars on the road. because i think -- i think

despite the disappointment, many people feel that it was a choice between the lesser of two evils. i think people are very aware of the mistor chistorical signific this. that is why in the city of more than 18 million people, it appears most of them are watching television at the moment. >> i'd like to say that the atmosphere must be electric there, but i imagine it is simply hot. you're standing over the square. you say it's not as crowded as it used to be. tell us who's there. tell us what you're see ing. how are they finding out about the election results? i'm hearing some noise echoing across the square. >> i missed the question. >> jonathan's asking us how is the crowd hearing about the news. there is piped in audio from the election commission. they're hearing what we're hearing, what you're hearing. they are anticipating and, of course, they expected an hour ago this result to be made public. we have been both of us down in tahrir square. and it is blistering hot.

you know, slowly getting a little cooler as the sun begins to set. but they've been here pretty much all day in the midday sun. people are throwing water over people there. very mindful of the fact that is very, very hard temperature to be able to spend several hours in. that's what they've been doing for the last several hours. again, this is the muslim brotherhood group. they've been busing their people in. they are waiting there along with all of us to get the results. you were saying, ben, earlier, described for jonathan the way the crowd was being whipped up. >> for a while there they were really sort of chanting and starting "oh, lord, oh, lord." i can tell that after this has been going on, what, about 40 minutes, people are quiet. and it looks like they're just getting a little impatient. i've been down there watching people to the left and to the right, basically fainting from sunstroke.

i imagine they're getting fairly impatient to hear the final results and just get to the point. >> i think important to say, also, that the lot of the prespeech comments down there were about the military. they do not want the military to obtain political and effective total control of this country. there have been slogans out there. we know that even before we were anticipating today's results, the muslim brotherhood has said that no matter who wins, even if their candidate, mohammed morsi does, they are going to be in for a prolonged sit-in. because it's no longer in their mind just about who wins the election but about what meaningful power and authority a president will have now that the supreme council of the armed forces over the last several days has stripped the next president of any effective power and stripped the parliament so far of any legislative power having dissolved the parliament. >> that's one of the complaints of many of the people in this square is that back in november and january, they went -- it was by egyptian standards a huge

turnout. more than 60%. and the parliament had a stamp of popular legitimacy. and the courts turned around and dissolved it. i think that's one of the reasons why there is so much resentment among these people. what they've been chanting down there is "go, go to the field marshal." he's the senior officer within the supreme council of the armed forces. this is a fundamental change for the muslim brotherhood since -- because after february 11th when hosni mubarak stepped down, the brotherhood had a fairly cooperative relationship with the military. but that relationship has soured as the muslim brotherhood has shown that in terms of politics, it did very well in the parliamentary election. of course, they did relatively well, but not as well in these presidential elections. of course, we're waiting to hear how exactly well they did. >> our cairo bureau chief, ben wedeman. chief international correspondent christiane amanpour waiting for those election results.

we have been seeing from time to time the face of the chairman of the electoral commission farouk saltan on our screens. we've been seeing security around the electoral commission itself. authorities are clearly concerned. they have reaffirmed long standing orders if there are attempts on government buildings, police buildings, police have orders to shoot to kill. we've seen no sign of it. cairo seems to be a little quieter than normal but entirely calm. the crowd in tahrir square seems remarkably well behaved. if we still have christiane or ben with us, are you seeing any sign of the security forces there? we don't. we do have dan rivers in another part of the city. he's further off with supporters of ahmed shafiq, the former military man, one of two candidates in the running. what's happening there? >> reporter: well, like the rest

of egypt, they are watching this very lengthy result being read out. let me just wheel round. we're in the w.j. marriott right out near the airport. it's quite a long way really outside of metropolitan cairo. this is the scene before you. a few hundred shafiq supporters have tramped into one of the ballrooms here. they're watching it on big screens. this lengthy result being read out. what appears to be happening is that they're going through sort of contested ballot by contested ballot down the country from north to south. as they get to one they feel they should have won, there's been periodic ripples of applause. here's another one right now. we're just hearing now it seems that they have canceled the -- we're just waiting to hear. it appears there's some sort of cancellation is going out right

now. more applause here. people are digesting what's going on. >> dan, i want to ask you, though, about what we're seeing. >> reporter: that was a bit of bad information. >> let's go back to election -- >> reporter: let me just clarify. that was a bad bit of information. that was just reporting one of the contested ballots. we're still waiting for the final result, and people here occasionally are clapping as they feel vindicated in certain areas. but it's pretty nervous. pretty tense. people are smoking in here. they're obviously worried about what all this means for egypt and what it means for them as well if their rival, mohammed morsi, is confirmed as president. >> dan, i am struck i have to tell you not so much by what you're telling us but by the scenes behind you. tens of millions of people voted in this election. at least 50 million we heard in the first round. i'm not sure about the second round. but tens of millions of people voted according to the electoral

commission. we're still waiting to hear the results of that vote. we are seeing thousanding in tahrir square which is apparently a small crowd by tahrir square stan tards. and there seem to be only a handful in the headquarters or rather in the meeting behind you gathered for supporters of one of the two runoff candidates. how many people are there and why aren't we seeing more of them, do you think? >> reporter: yeah. it's quite strange, actually, how few people arehere. we are told they held it out here because there were too many for them to be accommodated in the campaign headquarters. really there are, what, maybe 200 people here, perhaps, as you look across this room. you can tell most of them are very well-dressed. there's some people here in military uniforms. a lot of people in suits. these are not your average sort of working-class egyptians. these are very much people from the upper echelons of society. you can see as our camera is having a good walk around, i'll wander with them if we can, this

could be a sense of this meeting. it's not that big at all. probably about 20 tables of people here. as i say, many of them sort of nervously looking at their mobile phones and listening to this broadcast as it's made on tv screens behind us. people obviously getting impatient. there's a hubbub here as this lengthy sort of results is read out. it's not -- it's not packed to the rafters as expected. it's being held in a sort of five-star hotel right out on the edge of town. there was in the election earlier a huge traffic jam to get here caused by a horrific accident on the freeway. that may have prevented a lot of people getting here who wanted to get here. certainly it's not the kind of jam packed meeting that one would anticipate for such a crucial juncture in the history of -- political history of egypt. >> dan rivers live with

supporter of ahmed shafiq listening to the egyptian election commission reading out its statement leading up to, we are told, the announcement of the election results for egypt's presidential runoff. from those few hundreds in a hotel, a steadying contrast in cairo today. the thousands who are gathered in the heat of tahrir square. ian lee is among them. ian, they must be wilting because of t because of the wait and because of the heat. i'm wondering if they are getting frustrated. >> jonathan, i can tell you this is the quietist i've heard ir in ite a long time. everyone is listening certainly on the announcement, on the election commission delivering their speech. they're huddling around videos, televisions, computers. also trying to get into the shade because it is hot out here. like was reportedarlier, this is a smaller crowd than we've seen definitely in the past.

with this election, with the announcement we're expecting either way, whichever way it goes, more people are going to come into the square right now. just looking around, we have people praying. definitely this is a strong area for mohammed morsi supporters. people are waiting intently, talking to each other in hushed voices, waiting for the announcement. >> let me give people a sense of what we're talking about to put it in humid terms. fahrenheit i according to the reports we have here. that would be in the high 30s celsius. these people are pretty closely packed shoulder to shoulder. they say they are staying. one measure of the determination that many people have to see this election through to the result that they have been hoping for. and this is the man that they're waiting for. farouk saltan. he's the head of the presidential election commission. he has been recounting the work of the commission. the challenges. and there have been hundreds to

the election that was held. it was held in two rounds. the first round, about 50 million voters. there were hundreds of complaints about the way even the second round was conducted. and he is apparently working his way slowly through them. he was scheduled to begin speaking more than an hour ago. he began, i guess it was nearly an hour ago. thousands of people in tahrir square, millions across egypt, are huddled close to aid oradio close to television sets waiting to hear the number for the presidential result. two candidates in the runoff election, mohammed morsi, kand tat of the party line with the muslim brotherhood and ahmed shafiq, a man who ran without the backing of any political party but on the basis of his past as a regime loyalist, a former prime minister of former minister in the mubarak government. closely allied, even to this day, it is believed with the military.

let's listen in. >> translator: and it canceled 1,036 votes ten. as for the challenges given chances made by mohammed morsi, the candidate -- >> it is a remarkable achievement egypt has had. this difficult and imperfect path towards democracy. it elected a parliament only to see that parliament voted unconstitutional by the country's courts. and then to have the parliament suspended by the country's military rulers. so there is no sitting parliament. egyptians who invested so much emotion and passion and even so much of their own blood pushing

their country towards democracy have been looking towards this, then, the election of their country's first democratically elected president. ian lee is with the demonstrators, the protesters in tahrir square. ian, there has been so much concern of violence toda so much concern that these tensions would boil over. how does it sem to you there? are people ready to accept whatever the decision is that they're about to hear? >> people it sha-- it looks lik people aren't ready to accept this president. the muslim brotherhood has said they will stay here and keep protesting if shafiq is president. someg that shows the devotion of the muslim brotherhood's followers are that the people are out here in this extreme weather, extreme heat. it shows how much control the muslim brotherhood, how much

power they do have. we're seeing these people out here. we haven't seen any violence or any inclinations of violence. usually when we do see stuff, you see piling of rocks, sticks. weaven't seen anyf that. 're not anticipating any violence at least in the near future or at all really. definitely are adamant about staying here. the muslim brotherhood does have strong support down here. if they do say -- if the give orders to do something, people here are most likely to follow. >> ian lee in tahrir square. anks very much. we're not going to fwo far. positioned just above the square are cairo bureau chief ben wedeman and chief international correspondent christiane amanpour. ben, i don't know if you've had a chance to listen in to the election commission announcement. but what is he doing? >> well, that's a good question.

he's really explaining the nuts and bolts of this electoral process. in fact, i'm waiting for him to start to name individually all the people who voted in this election. even though i think it's fascinating to hear the details of how they went through this process, how they dealt with irregular votes and whatnot, i think speaking on behalf of 90 million egyptians, i'd like to think we'd like to hear the resul results, jonathan. >> it's obviously really long. it is keeping people very much on the edge of their seats as we've been saying. they're also talking about going from polling station to polling station, how many people voted for this candidate or that candidate. how many votes were invalidated. how many irregularities there were. i think beyond this technical sort of situation right now, people are really anxious to know what kind of a difference will it make to their lives if one or the other was elected. i spoke to mohammed morsi, the candidate ofhe muslim

brotherhood. of coue, the freedom and justice party, which is their political wing. i asked him about the fears that many people here have about being ruled by an islamist party. i asked him about women who are already raising questions about what their rights would be. what about laws that have been enacted to protect women, particularly in the sexual harassment area, partirly i the sorry to say female genital mutilation category. there are rumors some of these lays may be overturned. these are very important for women here tnow and be confident they will have not just the rights they have right now protected but to get even more equal rights under a new revolutionary egypt. after all, it was women -- there's a huge cheer that's just gone up in the crowd right now.

>> translator: the public held on the 16th or 17th of june 2012 would be as follows. the number votes that -- and they list -- the number of those casted their votes. 26,420,763 voters. 51%. the number of right votes,

25,577,711 votes. the number of votes. 843,252. what has shafiq. 12 12,347,380 votes. 48%. mohammed morsi, he won --

[ cheers and applause ] >> translator: sit down. have your seats. [ cheers and applause ]

[ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ]

>> an eruption of energy and enthusiasm from cairo's tahrir square coming as egypt's electoral commission aou that its candidate, mohammed morsi, of the freedom and justice party, has won egypt's presidential tion. e arab world's most populous nation elects an islamist head of state. our chief international correspondent christiane amanpour, our cairo bureau chief ben wedeman are on the scene watching this eruption of joy. christiane, your thoughts? >> jonathan, it is incredible to be standing over here watching this square explode and enjoy, obviously, these are the muslim brotherhood supporters who've been brought over here for so long. but this is a dramatic moment. we did not know, they did not know who was going to be their president. it's the first time in the history of modern egypt that egyptians have not known who they will have as their leader.

this is also the first islamist head of state to emerge from these arab up risings. it is the first islamic head of state in the arab world. this is a fundamental, historic, transformative moment with all the questions. you noticed a bit of hesitation in my voice. because it's been all the questions that accompany what is going to happen next. but after an hour of reading out painstaking, perhaps more than an hour, reasons for coming to this answer and coming to this result, egypt's highest election commission has announced mohammed morsi will be and is the next president of egypt in this country's first ever free and democratic election. it may have not been the two candidates that most of egypt had wanted. they are the two most polarized candidates. one the islamist, muslim brotherhood. the other representative of the old guard, ahmed shafiq, who lost by a margin of some 1 million votes. but this is an extraordinary

moment, ben, to be watching from here after covering this for oh so long. >> certainly you can see from the reaction of the crowd, christia christiane, for those supporters of the muslim brotherhood this is, indeed, truly significant. it was just a year and a half ago under the regime of hosni mubarak that many of the leaders of the muslim brotherhood, including mohammed morsi himself, spent time in prison. now we see mohammed morsi will be named the next president of egypt. hosni mubarak, the last president is a prisoner now serving a life sentence for not doing enough to stop the killing of protesters in the beginning of last year. so for the muslim brotherhood, hugely significant. at the same time, we have to point out that due to recent decisions by the military council, president morsi will have very limited powers. most of the major decisions he would be making as president need to be approved beforehand

by the supreme council of the armed forces. the army remains a state within a state, which decides on its budget with very little civilian oversight. so he is the president of egypt. but mohammed morsi is a man who will have very limited powers, certainly compared to the powers of his predecessor. >> again, this is just stunning. if you -- >> ian lee who is in tahrir square, ian, if you can hear us over the roar of the crowd, tell us what's going on around you. >> oh, jonathan. it's pandemonium. people are celebrating. they're hugging. they're crying. just pure emotion. when the announcement came there was just one loud -- they started dancing around. we're seeing fireworks. we're seeing flags waved. people are jumping on top of cars, dancing. i have not seen a celebration like this since the night

mubarak fell down, stepped down. just a huge party. you can be sure this is just the beginning. this party is going to go well into the night as people just continue to stream in. it looks like we have people from all around on the roads are starting to come in, into the square. it really is a sight to behold. all these people jumping around, dancing. people calling their loved ones, telling them about the news. it really is quite a celebratory atmosphere here, jonathan. >> this is tahrir square. we're looking at live pictures of the epicenter of the egyptian revolution. and a result no one could have predicted two years ago today. egy egypt's next head of state will be mohammed morsi of the muslim brotherhood. ian lee is in that rapturous crowd. ian, many people fear the muslim brotherhood. they fear mohammed morsi.

they fear what will become of the role of women, the role of secular government, the peace of israel's relationship with the west. on this day at this moment i suppose they're being outvoted, aren't they, by the crowd around them? >> the crowd right here, i have to say, is a good mixture of men and women. old, young. but you are not seeing some of the strict single demographics that we've seen in the past. this is definitely a good mixture. right now a lot of people are thinking about those issues. these are definitely important issues that will need to be addressed as the muslim brotherhood -- as mohammed morsi now takes the presidency. these will be issues that people will definitely talk about. for right now, there's just celebration, jonathan. it is one big party here in tahrir square. it's really hard to hear them. to hear over the rapture right

now. it's so loud. >> ian lee in tahrir square. if you're just joining us, here are the numbers according to egypt's higher presidential election commission. 51.73% of voters backed muslim brotherhood candidate mohammed morsi, the winner of egypt's presidential runoff election. ahmedshafiq, the hope of secularists, the hope of more erti elements egypt, affl citins lost the election with 48.27% of the vote. let's just listen in and share the moment with the happy crowd in tahrir square. [ cheers and applause ]

>>he outpouring of joy, all of that emotion is about so many things. it's not necessarily about the man who's won, mohammed morsi. you can see him there. he will be egypt's next president. but he is now in the history of his people, he is in the history of the arab world, the history of the century. the first islamist elected to head the muslim world's most populous and influential nation. morsi is 60 years old. he is an engineer by training. and he received his training in the united states. he got his p. hd at the university of southern california. a professor at california state university, northridge. his two children are american citizens. he has not hidden his scorn for the moral decay of the united states. so many estions will have to be addressed. egypt has been one of washington's closest allies in the mile east. certainly its closest ally in the arab world. what will become of that?

what will become of the peace treaty with israel? what will bcome of its slow, tentative and frequently set back road to democracy? because morsi's own position as president is uncharted. the military will write the constitution. it's not clear whether he will have the power he expected at the start of this campaign. those bigger issues pale in comparison with the sce we are witnessing now. tahrir square, the seat of the egyptian revolution, an enormous outpouring of relief and emotion. we'll ack rit after this. no. i'm told we're staying with this. we're going to keep watching. dan rivers is at the smaller hotel gathering of supporters of ahmed shafiq, the defeated candidate. dan, what's happening there? >> reporter: well, there's been some absolutely fallen faces. some fury.

an altercation with one of the pro-revolution tv channels between a female supporter who threw something and yelled at them. real high passions there. i'm joined with one supporter of ahmed shafiq. what's your initial reaction seeing this result. >> all i have to say is wishing mr. morsi good luck and hoping he'll be the president of all egyptians as promised. hope we see a better future with him. i highly doubt it, but i don't have anything to believe in except hope in the future. >> a lot of people here are actually crying as the news came through. i can see you're moved as well. this really has hit people very hard here, hasn't it? >> yes, yes. i didn't expect it at all. i was coming here thinking that -- everything said that,

all the evidence, everything. >> reporter: in fact, he said that on his facebook as well. >> pretty much on both sides. mr. morsi announced the results four hours before they finished. then the campaign here announced results very early. now i agree. we should have waited until the final results. so we don't have people get high hopes. >> reporter: what's the way forward for egypt from here? >> all i -- all we want is to develop our country. the country develop to become -- again, with mohammed morsi, we will hope for that. hopefully he'll be fair a be president of all egyptians, not only the muslim brotherhood group. >> reporter: will the army accept this result, do you think? >> yes, of course. yes. we all -- we all accept it.

we all respect the law. we cannot say anything. it is the law. as you see the elections were clear and everything. it was honest elections. >> reporter: thank you very much, indeed. just immediate bit of reaction. but here people obviously very upset. as i say, there was some actual altercations here between some of the press. you can see now it's completely empty. all of those supporters, the few hundred that had crowded in here have left. you're loong at an empty room as the hotel stafftarts clearing up. dippointed they are with this nd result. but rhaps, as that lady said, a result nevertheless they will accept. >> a remarkable image behind you. ahmed shafiq's supporters basically flee the room where they had gathered. 48% of the country, dan rivers,

was said to have voted for that man. not a lot of supporters to be found on this day. dan rivers with shafiq supporters, thanks very much. you're looking still at the tumultuous scene in tahrir square where supporters of mohammed morsi, the muslim brotherhood candidate who is now elected egypt's next president. let's listen in. [ cheers and applause ] >> rhee yan ian lee is in that throng in tahrir square. what a day to be there after a year and a half of struggle. they have elected their candidate to the presidency.

>>jonathan, here in tahrir square, i want to point out something else. this is heavy muslim brotherhood. we're also seeing flags of the group the six of april. this is a youth movement that formed a few yearsago. during the presidential election, their whole campaign was against anybody who was a member of the former regime. these weren't with any candidate in particular. they said as long as it wasn't someone who had any ties to the former regime. a lot of people from that movement, too. really, this square is full of people who are celebrating that mohammed morsi won, but also celebrating the fact that ahmed shafiq lost. and these are the peop who were other revolutionaries who said they do not want anyone om the former regime. we're seeing both groups really celebrating here. throwing babies in the air and waving flags and just hugging each other.

it really is quite the celebration here in tahrir. >> as a symbol, i'll just point out, of a transformation of the muslim brotherhood. the brotherhood was barely tolerated and oen persecuted organization in egypt. it did its best not to annoy authorities as it tried to navigate its way through hosni mubarak's dictatorial regime. even in the first days of the revolution the muslim brotherhood was cautious and a little bit tepid in its support because its instincts were so conservative. now the muslim brotherhood seems to be the spearhead. it seems to be the air to the hopes of so many egyptians who came out and faced down the authorities, faced down the security forces, fought and w egypt's revolution. now the muslim brotherhood is the recipient of that enormous popular will. and all of those expectations, all of them vested in the person of mohammed morsi. i don't imagine he's in the square today. i'm wondering if there's any

indication, if you have heard when we might hear or see the president-elect of egypt? >> i haven't heard if he's going to make it down to the square. i tell you though, if he does, would receive a welcome like no other. when you talked about how the muslim brotherhood was a little bit -- supporting the revolution in the beginning but they came on strong, the muslim brotherhood in the n this past year and a half has had a self-learning curve. they've really had to adapt. had to change their ways. had to change overall this political system that kept evolving in front of us in order to stay relevant. this is an organization that grew up really the last 30 years was under a dictatorship. and knew how to operate under a dictatorship. now it's coming to the forefront of egyptian political life. this is a big test for them.

it shows how they've had to evolve over the past year and a half to gather supporters, to move effectively in an election, in a campaign and to be able to fw get out the vote. today we're seeing them bring in a president, mohammed morsi. this is just after less than a year and a half in the same square they got rid of hosni mubarak. >> ian lee in tahrir square. we'll come back to you in a moment. we've been watching this with our cairo chief and international correspondent christiane amanpour and ben wedeman. chris christiane, this is a scene that's got to be resonating throughout the world certainly but in the arab world really profoundly. >> absolutely, jonathan. not just in the arab world. in the united states. in the west as well. because as we've been saying over and over again, what is the significance of this moment beyond that it is egypt's first

presidential election, that it is the arab uprising. that he is the first islamist head of state in this part of the world. and you know wha tremors that sends around people. not just road, but in this part of the world as well. because they want to know, what does that mean for my life? how will my life change under an islamist president? i asked him all these very pointed questions in an interview i conducted with him just before the election. and perhaps we'll play some of it later on. but we talked about what kind of a democracy willthis be? what is a muslim brotherhood democracy? and he s there is no such thing as a muslim brotherhood or islamic democracy. there is only a democracy where everybody will be treated equally. women, christians, minorities, men. everybody will be treated equally, he said. we will wait to see that. because i can assure you that women are worried. at least those who didn't vote for him. women are worried about whether their limited rights will be curtailed ev further.

who else isrrieo christians. weekend of the election.st the the final run-up last week. they were worried. they said, oh, my goodness. what does this mean? do we have to leave this country? we've seen the flare-up of violence between christian and muslims since the toppling of hosni mubarak. what does thiseanor us? even if we're not pushed out, what kind ofusinescan we still opate? what kind of nbo relations can we expect to have? what about the relations with the united states, i asked him about. and he said we want to continue to have relations with the united states. but you know that in the backdrop of all of that, the people's voice will count in a future foreign policy in egypt and inany other of these arab countries which ha experien these revolutions. it is no longer friendly autocrats who will be able to conduct their foreign policy without so much as any regard for the street. he said that we want a policy of neutral friendship with the united states based on mutual

interest. he pointed to an absolute mu that was, in his mind, the united states playing a fair and active role in the israeli/pal sitinn s yan standoff that continues to this day. i asked what about israel, then. he said we will continue to maintain the camp david accords. but, again, said, we will do it, we will uphold our end of the bargain if they uphold their end of the bargai fwen, it's nolonger a one way street. i think this is what's on many, many people's minds even as we watch this incredible moment, this stunning moment. lenot forget, i mean, is sort of difficult to get your head around this moment. for six decades the military that has ruled egypt has been loggerheads, physically, politically with this group, the muslim brotherhood. now the military is presiding over a victory by the muslim brotherhood. they will be in charge of this country. >> let me jump in on that very thought. as you confront the possibility of a muslim democracy in egypt,

it's still a military democracy at best. wedeman, the pictures we're seeing today are remarkable. but they may be a little bit deceptive. after today, is mohammed morsi really going to be running the country? >> no, he's not going to be running the country. he's more than anything going to be a figurehead. if you look at that crowd and you see the level of support, and he did get more than 50% of the votes, he certainly does have a certain amount of clout that goes beyond the technicalities of whatever his powers are. and what's interesting is that between the first round of voting in may and this round, the muslim brotherhood has been very active trying to broaden its appeal. it's trying to bring in the liberals, the seculars, the left, the workers. and certainly they have been, for instance, mohammed morsi has a meeting just a few days ago with the secular opposition.

with others in which he said he would appoint a vice president who might be a christian, a woman, a youth from tahrir square. so they're painfully aware that they have to make sort of a nd very nar broaditn following. for instance, before the first round of voting, we went out to a part of sort of outside of cairo to a town where they we really appealing to their base. the rural poor, the farmers. and the focus was very much on religious issues. on the question of implementing sharia or islamic law. since the first round, they've changed their tone very much to try to broaden their appeal to reassure the christian minority, which makes up about 10% of the population, that they will not be pursuing an islamic agenda. they will try to broaden their

appeal so that they can work with all egyptians and not, of coursest their -- really their base is about 25% to 30% of the population. what's interesting to note, jonathan, was that in the parliamentary elections they got twice as many votes as they did in the presidential election. so they realize that the egyptian population is very skeptical about the muslim brotherhood. not just christians. not just women. but ordinary muslim egyptians who feel that it's somewhat pretentious of them to call themselves the muslim brotherhood. many egyptians will say am i any less muslim than they are? they really have to tread carefully at this stage. >> millions of egyptians are watching this scene unfold on television and as ben rightly points out, millions of egyptians, 48% of them, did not vote for the candidate who's now been declared the winner. if you're just joinin us, mohammed morsi of the muslim

brotherhood's freedom and justice party has been elected e egy egypt's next president according to the country's higher presidential election commission with 51.7% of the vote. ahmed shafiq, the mubarak loyalist who served as the toppled dictator' last prime minister received 48%f the vote. a polarized nation, but a clear result. d in tahrir square, the joy is complete. we're watching this remarkable scene with christiane amanpour, and chief international rrespondent and ben wedeman. mohammed morsi is, ms to the business of politics. do we have any indication from him or his supporters when we might hear and acceptance speech or see him speak to the people of egypt who now are expecting he will be their president? >> i don't think we have any

indication yet. but obviously it will be highly anticipated. you w, in 05 when hosni mubarak won his last election, it took him quite some time to get around to giving an acceptance speech because it really wasn't considered that important. obviously now you're going to be hearing from a man who spent some time in prison. i think 18 months in prison under hosni mubarak. i think there's sort of a feeling that we have finally arrived among the muslim brotherhood supporters and its members. before the revolution, the muslim brotherhood -- and there was no freedom and justice party. they had no political party. it was an operation, an organization that existed very much in sort of a legal limbo. we always called it tolerated. sometimes it was not tolerated at all. many of its leaders rounded up summarily and thrown in prison

z. >> exactly. i think also what's really interesting is pre scisely this now tension in some way or fashion that's going to have to be worked out between the military and muslim brotherhood. if indeed the muslim brotherhood sticks to what it said before this result, that is they're going to continue to occupy tahrir square even if their candidate won, because they wanted to say no to the military having all meaningful power, that is going to be interesting. the muslim brotherhood didn't play a full frontal rule in the revolution. they were much more in the background supporting the young people and really sort of just being part of from a background position. they said they weren't going to contest the presidential elections. then they did. they said they weren't going to go full-fledged into the parliamentary elections, and then they did. so they have amassed a huge

amount of power. it will be very interesting to see how they reach some ki of accommodation with the military. because powerful or not, there's going to be a constitutional committee of some sort that's got to write the constitution. is the muslim brotherhood going to sit back and allow the military simply to write laws that just benefit itself and to take all kind of executive power or legislative power away from the people? i don't think they're going to be able to do that. we're going to watch this democratic process hopefully unfold. i think uppermost in everybody's mind is that this must be the first of a series of elections. not like in other places where you have a democratic ection and then that's it. then the rest is autocracy for many years. people won't stand for it. i think this tahrir square is a symbol for the fact that this is the people's voice. we're going to keep coming out here if there are things we don't approve of.

>> christiane amanpour and ben wedeman overlooking tahrir square. think of the berlin wall falling. think of nelson mandela being liberated from prison. tahrir square takes its place alongside them with the election of mohammed morsi as egypt's first democratically chosen leader. and the first islamist head of state of the arab spring. i'm jonathan mann. coverage will continue for viewers around the world. viewers in the united states will return to regularly scheduled programming. this is cairo, live, tahrir this is cairo, live, tahrir square. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com