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Posted by
Olog-hai
on Mon Jun 18 17:56:37 2012, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts! Looks like we have more Military Rule, not Democracy, posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Mon Jun 18 12:29:50 2012.
fiogf49gjkf0d Not only the choice between that and just the MB, but having to choose between the military and a MB president with no parliament (recently dissolved) who stands a good chance of becoming an autocrat if the people demand that the military back down?
Daily Telegraph
Egypt presidential election: Muslim Brotherhood win sets up army fightBy Richard Spencer, Cairo
7:33PM BST 18 Jun 2012The Muslim Brotherhood, long repressed by Egypt's military dictatorship, claimed victory in the race to choose its first freely elected president and set up a dramatic confrontation with the army over his future powers.
The Brotherhood said Mohammed Morsi, leader of its political front the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), won a narrow but clear victory by a margin of 51.5 to 48.5 percent of the votes, and would take up the reins of office by June 30.
Its proclamation was challenged by Morsi's main rival, the former general Ahmed Shafiq, whose campaign manager accused the Brotherhood of "an act of piracy" and of using "totally false figures" to support its "hijacking" of the results.
State-run newspapers, however, also gave the victory to Morsi.
But as the polls closed, Egypt's interim military government, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), quickly moved to take away much of the new president's authority. In a late night announcement, it declared it would reserve legislative and budget powers for itself until a new parliament was elected.
Crucially, it said that would not happen until a new permanent constitution was put in place — a constitution whose drafting it would oversee and which it reserved the right to veto.
The FJP issued a statement rejecting the dissolution of parliament, raising the possibility that it would now set up a "shadow government" to rival the army. "The parliament remains valid and holds legislative power and control," it said.
The army's statement was condemned by Egypt's revolutionary activists, who last year fought to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak, as final proof that the country had returned to military dictatorship.
They won powerful backing when the United States, Egypt's main military backer, stepped in. "We're deeply concerned about new amendments to the constitution declaration, including the timing of their announcements," a Pentagon spokesman, George Little, said.
"We support the Egyptian people and their expectation that the SCAF will transfer full power to a democratically-elected civilian government."
On the surface, the Brotherhood is caught in a trap. After 80 years of political persecution, Morsi's victory — assuming it is not reversed by the army when the official results are declared on Thursday — represents a moment of triumph it is unwilling to cast aside.
On the other hand, if it cooperates with the army and negotiates a partial political transition, it runs the risk of damaging its own credibility as an independent voice.
Last night, there were signs that the Brotherhood would continue the policy it pursued through much of Mubarak's rein, of seeking a middle path. It said it would take part in "all popular activities against the constitutional coup", starting on Tuesday, when activists are calling for demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
But it also insisted it was ready to work with the army. "We have abolished the word confrontation from our dictionary," the Brotherhood's spokesman, Yasser Ali, told The Daily Telegraph. "We will open dialogue with everyone, including SCAF."
In an effort to broaden its appeal, Ali said the Brotherhood would appoint five vice-presidents, including a Christian, to represent "all strands of Egyptian society". In the last two weeks of his campaign, aware that he needed to broaden his appeal beyond the 25 per cent who voted for him in the first round, Morsi dropped almost all references to Islamist aspects of his program, stressing its social and economic points.
On Tahrir Square itself, cheering Brotherhood supporters dismissed the army's ability to stop what they see as the tide in their favor. "It's only a matter of time," Mohammed Mustafa, 28, a construction firm executive, said. "It's another step forward for the Brotherhood."
Those who support neither the Islamists nor the army are torn between a desire to see their enemies tear each other apart and a fear of the consequence if they do.
"There will be a civil war," said Magdy Hussein, an art museum director.
"Eventually neither the army nor the liberals and revolutionaries will accept the Muslim Brotherhood. This is what it will come to."
The "liberals and revolutionaries" are irrelevant; the election proved that.
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