Egypt presidential candidate blasts Islamist MP

A leading Egyptian presidential candidate has lashed out at an Islamist lawmaker who accused him of graft, treating voters to a new spectacle in an already unprecedentedly heated campaign.

These are the first competitive presidential elections in the country’s modern history, and in the last week of the campaign period the candidates are facing a level of public scrutiny rarely seen before in Egyptian politics — including televised debates, interviews and legal challenges, reported AP.

The front-runners include two former officials from the era of deposed president Hosni Mubarak and two Islamist candidates. They have clashed over the role of religion, the degree to which the country needs to change, and whether politicians from the old Egypt should hold office in the new.

The May 23-24 vote follows 29 years of Mubarak’s autocratic rule. He was the sole candidate in all but one of the presidential contests in that period, and it would have been unthinkable for him to have to face such questions.