Egyptian cabinet is to meet on Tuesday as violent protests took place near the offices of a run-off candidate, Ahmad Shafiq, who was a prime minister under the rule of Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian cabinet is to meet on Tuesday as violent protests took place near the offices of a run-off candidate, Ahmad Shafiq, who was a prime minister under the rule of Hosni Mubarak.

Shortly after electoral commission confirmed that Shafiq would face Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammad Mursi, protesters took to streets and gathered in Tahrir Square, the hub of a popular uprising that ousted Mubarak.
AFP news agency reported that around 1,000 protesters had gathered in the Square to protest Shafiq's presence on the run-off ballot, arguing the results were rigged.

"Shafiq will be president when I'm dead," read one poster on a car parked in the square, the hub of last year's uprising.
Hours later, protests turned violent when demonstrators set fire to the headquarters of Shafiq.

Media reports said the cabinet would hold a meeting in the wake of the attack, after a senior military official said the army had plans to deal with any violence ahead of the decisive election.

Police, who put their forces on alert, said eight suspects were arrested near the office following the attack.

RESULTS
Announcing the results, electoral commission chief Faruq Sultan had said no candidate won a majority in the first-round vote on May 23-24, so the two with the highest votes, Mursi and Shafiq, would enter a runoff.

Mursi had won with 24.77 percent of the votes, slightly ahead of Shafiq with 23.66 percent.
Leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi came third with 20.71 percent, ahead of Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh with 17.47 percent.

Former foreign minister Amr Mussa was fifth, trailing with 11.12 percent.
The commission put the official turnout in the vote -- the first since the 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak -- at 46 percent of the 50 million people eligible to cast ballots in the historic election.