(CBC) — The Muslim Brotherhood is claiming a lead in Egypt’s historic presidential elections after polls closed on Thursday and vote counting began.

A Brotherhood spokesperson said exit polls conducted by the party’s campaign workers all over Egypt suggested Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi is out front of the rest of the pack. The reliability of the party’s exit polls could not be confirmed but several regional television stations were reporting a lead for Morsi, with Hamdeen Sabahi and Ahmed Shafiq battling it out for second place.

There are 13 candidates in the race — including liberals, Islamists and former regime figures — to elect a successor to Hosni Mubarak, the longtime authoritarian ruler who was ousted during the Arab Spring more than a year ago.

Shafiq and Amr Moussa are the two leading secular contenders and are both veterans of Mubarak’s regime — Shafiq as prime minister and Moussa as foreign minister.