presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished in third place in the first round of voting, asked for the Egyptian election to be temporarily suspended until an investigation could be carried out. On 28 May 2012, protesters angry at Shafik's advancement to the second round of voting set fire to an office associated with his campaign in Cairo. Fellow candidate Khaled Ali said while participating in a protest against the election results in Tahrir Square that Tahrir had "toppled Mubarak, and would topple Shafik". The election contest between Shafik and Morsi had been described as a "choice between two of Egypt's most polarizing politicians", and some activists resorted to participation in a hunger strike to protest his candidacy. Shafik's presidential campaign was characterized by an emphasis on public order and security, and although the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces did not endorse a candidate, American news outlet McClatchy Newspapers pointed to the "conspicuous presence of sympathetic security forces at his campaign stops" as evidence of his close relationship with the military. Shafik used his campaign events to court Egyptian elites and voters wary of an Islamist-led government. He reportedly suggested that he would employ executions and "brutal force" to restore order in the country within a month of taking office. Although preliminary election results indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsi won the second round of elections by a slight margin, the results remained within the margin of error and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, with Shafik claiming victory in the election. On 24 June, the High Presidential Electoral Commission, headed by Farouk Sultan, announced Shafik's narrow defeat by his bitter rival Morsi, with 48.27% of the vote for the former, compared to Morsi's 51.73%. In the hours following his defeat, it was widely reported that Shafiq and his family flew out to Abu Dhabi, wary of potential charges of financial irregularities and electoral fraud, a move he later confirmed on Sky News. Shafik alleged that the election was flawed; Public Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud called for an investigation into the claims. In August 2013, former Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin stated that an Egyptian official had told him that the true results of the election were in favor of Shafik, but the military gave the presidency to Morsi out of fear of unrest. Launch of new political party Ahmed Shafiq announced that he would launch a