Egypt polls: Muslim Brotherhood heading towards victory

The Muslim Brotherhood is moving towards a surprise victory in the first round of presidential elections in Egypt.

Their victory could raise the likelihood of Islamist domination on the country's politics, The Telegraph reports.

Results after the first round of polls indicated that Mohammed Morsi, the leader of the Brotherhood's political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, took an early lead.

However, analysts have stressed that the guess will be long and difficult, with a formal result only to be declared on Tuesday.

Other campaigns, including that of Amr Moussa, the former Arab League secretary-general, who is long considered a front-runner, also said that Morsi was ahead and at least likely to gain one of the two places in next month's run-off.

Who will win the second position was also difficult to guess, with Abdulmoneim Aboul Fotouh, a moderate Islamist, Hamdeen Sabahi, a left-wing nationalist, and Ahmed Shafiq, a general and "remnant" of the regime of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, all had the chance to win.

The Brotherhood had predicted their success even before the end of the polls. 

"We expect to win," Yasser Ali, a Brotherhood spokesman said. 

Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood leader, said that he was confident that Morsi had come first. He said, "Now we will continue to address the effects of the deep state planted by Mubarak and his regime over 60 years".

Morsi's win would be a remarkable come-back for a man who is widely seen as one lacking in charisma and whose organisation had come under fire for trying to exploit its parliamentary position to seize power.

The Presidential Election Commission has said that it is investigating a number of breaches of the rules during the polls, but indicated that the integrity of the result was not threatened.