The Islamists in Egypt have been celebrating since yesterday’s announcement by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Committee (SPEC) of Mohamed Mursi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) as Egypt’s new president
The Islamists in Egypt have been celebrating since yesterday’s announcement by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Committee (SPEC) of Mohamed Mursi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) as Egypt’s new president. Mursi won by less than a million votes over his rival Ahmed Shafik who was the last Prime Minister under Mubarak. The final count showed that Mursi garnered 52 per cent of the vote.
Mursi’s supporters in Tahrir Square vowed they would carry on with the demonstrations till the military hand over power.
The fact that it took the SPEC an entire week to announce the results, and the stress by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the military should hand power over to the new president, brought on many criticisms from Egypt’s civil society organisations. Clinton was quoted by the BBC on Wednesday accusing the generals of reneging on their promises to hand over power.
The leftist Tagammu Party last Thursday warned that the US was exerting pressure on the Egyptian authorities in favour of the Islamists, in the wake of the Pentagon objecting to the Supreme Constitutional Court’s ruling to dissolve Parliament.
A seminar held a day before the results were announced, at the al-Ghad Party in Cairo, saw Muslim and Coptic activists condemn US interference in Egypt’s affairs and the perceived pressures on the Military Council to hand over the power to the Islamists. They warned of a plan to divide the Middle East along religious, sectarian lines; and of an Israeli plan to enter Sinai.
Participants in the seminar included journalist writer Magdy Naguib Wahba, activist Fathi Sanad, and previous MP Ihab Ramzy. Their speeches focused on the alleged US project for a new Middle East that aims at creating Islamist States which allow for Sunnis to be pitted against Iran’s Shia.
Walaa Mursi, head of the Arab News agency in London, talked of an alleged plan by Israel to enter 25km of Sinai under the pretext of protecting its borders.
WATANI International
25 June 2012
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