The Muslim Brotherhood won Parliament and the Presidency. Yet on the eve of the election for the Presidency, the government wrote decree giving the military basically governing power and stripping most of the President's power! They say it's only "temporary," but when in the middle east (or anywhere) does a military grab power only temporarily and give it back. Especially when giving it to your rival. Don't forget the military has been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood for decades!
The second move after the win was to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood Parliament!
What do you think the response from radical Islamist will be? I doubt they take it on the chin and walk away. I believe it's a powder-keg ready to be set off. The spark will come and then we will have a Syria situation!
The second move after the win was to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood Parliament!
What do you think the response from radical Islamist will be? I doubt they take it on the chin and walk away. I believe it's a powder-keg ready to be set off. The spark will come and then we will have a Syria situation!
Egypt rivals claim presidency as army tightens grip | Reuters
Egypt's agonized passage from revolution to democracy was in limbo on Monday, as the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in a presidential election while the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak decreed it was they who would keep power for now.
The former general running against the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsy scorned the Islamist's self-declared triumph as a bid to "hijack" the election. Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's last prime minister, said his data showed it was he who was ahead.
After a day of counting, and mutual jibes over violations, there was no official word on how the two-day run-off had gone and electoral supervisors warned they may not publish a result until Thursday - prolonging what for many Egyptians has become a wearisome deadlock between a military past and religious future.
Shafik's camp insisted he led by two to four points but even sources in the army, which has fought the Brotherhood through six decades of military rule, indicated they were preparing to accept that Morsy had won Egypt's first free presidential vote.
But whoever emerges as president - and one electoral official privately endorsed Morsy's claim to be leading by 52 percent to 48 with the bulk of votes counted - he will find his powers tightly circumscribed by a decree issued by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi's military council as polls closed on Sunday.
Having last week dissolved the parliament that was elected in January with a thumping Islamist majority, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) said it would now take the assembly's legislative powers itself and could also step in to break a deadlock in drafting a new constitution.
Liberals and Islamists called it a "military coup".
"Military Transfers Power - to Military," ran the ironic headline in independent newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.
Egypt army to outline president's role, retain powers | Reuters
but legislative powers will for now go back to the army after parliament was dissolved, official sources said on Sunday.