Slanging match between run-off candidates in Egypt elections

Egyptian presidential candidates Ahmed Shafiq (L), Mohammed Morsi (R) Cairo – Akram Ali with Mohammed al-Shennawi Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood sharpened their rhetoric as an approaching run-off vote will decide Egypt's first freely elected president. The Brotherhood's

candidate, Mohammed Morsi, is apparently leading among the Egyptian expatriate vote, who recently went to polls before the general public.
Shafiq started by accusing the Brotherhood of paying thugs to attack his campaign headquarters in Cairo's Dokki neighbourhood last month.
Shafiq, a former air force commander, said in a news conference: "They [the Brotherhood] insist on using dirty tactics."
He also said he has complained to the Supreme Presidential Elections Commission (SPEC) that the Brotherhood used mosques to spread its message.
“I am an independent candidate backed by no party or group,” Shafiq said. “The Muslim Brotherhood candidate is backed by his group and supported by an undeclared organisation.”
The run-off, slated for June 16 and 17 pits Shafiq, appointed prime minister shortly before Hosni Mubarak resigned from office, against Islamist hardliner Morsi.
Later in the day, the Brotherhood accused Shafiq of telling "huge lies" and said he did nothing to stop a notorious charge on protesters in what has come to be known as the "Battle of the Camel" during the January 25, 2011 uprising.
The Brotherhood's statement in response to Shafiq’s allegations accused him of using propaganda, lies, deception and false information as his main weapons against Morsi in his desperate bid to clinch Egypt’s top job.
"This is aimed at driving voter support away from Dr Mohammed Morsi, candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in the presidential election run-off, and directing voters to support Shafiq, or at least boycott the elections," the statement added.
The statement continued: "Needless to say, this is the tried-and-tested method of bankrupt failures who have no respect for moral values, ethics or the code-of-honour of honest competition."
Shafiq in turn claims the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the killing of demonstrators in the "Battle of the Camel" during the days of the revolution.
"All Egyptians know that the leaders of the dissolved National Party are the culprits who brought the ruthless snipers and the thugs riding horses and camels into Tahrir Square, killing revolutionaries and peaceful protesters, in order to evacuate the square and effectively abort the revolution," said the statement.
"The people also know that General Shafiq is one of the icons of the dissolved National Party, and that he was prime minister at the time of the Camel massacre," it continued.
"Moreover, it is well known that Shafiq did not take any action to prevent or stop the massacre. He simply came out to apologise on satellite TV channels, promising that the killing would not be repeated. The snipers and the killers resumed their bloody work several times during the revolution," it added.
"All this condemns General Shafiq and his Interior Minister at the time, Major General Mahmoud Wagdy, for committing the same crimes for which the former president [Hosni Mubarak] and his interior minister [Habib el-Adly] were convicted," said the statement.
The Brotherhood also alleged that Shafiq’s ministry seized recorded evidence from cameras deployed around Tahrir Square and destroyed evidence that could tie them to the protester deaths. They also condemned his silence during the Mubarak trial.
The statement cited prominent figures such as Naguib Sawiris, Bilal Fadl, Mustafa El-Fiqi, Yomn Al-Hamaqi, of appreciating the Brotherhood's role in the revolution.
Further, there are hundreds of other Martyrs who died at other times and in other places. Who killed them? And who rammed unarmed protesters with a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Kasr Al-Aini Street?
The Brotherhood's statement concluded saying: "Is it at all conceivable that a man with such a shameful history and big lies could be fit for the presidency?"
Meanwhile, the announced result of the Egyptian presidential elections run-off abroad showed that Morsi was in the lead. The results were as follows: