Muslim Brotherhood Announces Mursi’s Victory in Elections

The Muslim Brotherhood declared early Monday that its candidate, Mohammed Mursi, won Egypt's presidential election over Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmad Shafiq .
But the military handed itself the lion's share power over the new president, sharpening the possibility of confrontation. With parliament dissolved and martial law effectively in force, the generals issued an interim constitution granting themselves sweeping authorities that ensure their hold on the state and subordinate the president.

The Muslim Brotherhood said Sunday it did not recognize the dissolution of parliament, where it was the largest party. It also rejected the military's right to issue an interim constitution and oversee the drafting of a new one.

Official final results are not due until Thursday, and Shafiq's campaign challenged the Brotherhood claim, which was based on the group's compilation of election officials' returns from nearly all polling centers nationwide.

But at their campaign headquarters, the Brotherhood officials and supporters were ebullient over the turn of fate.

In a victory speech at the headquarters, Mursi said he seeks "stability, love and brotherhood for the Egyptian civil, national, democratic, constitutional and modern state".
"Thank God, who successfully led us to this blessed revolution. Thank God, who guided the people of Egypt to this correct path, the road of freedom, democracy," the 60-year-old U.S.-educated engineer declared.
He vowed to all Egyptians, "men, women, mothers, sisters ... all political factions, the Muslims, the Christians" to be "a servant for all of them."  "We are not about taking revenge or settling scores. We are all brothers of this nation, we own it together, and we are equal in rights and duties."
"Down with military rule," the supporters chanted at the headquarters.

"The next phase is more difficult. We must all unite against the oppressive rule of the military council," MB founder Ahmed Maher said.

By the group's count, Morsi took 13.2 million votes, or 51.8 percent, to Shafiq's 48.1 percent out of 25.5 million votes with more than 99 percent of the more than 13,000 poll centers counted.
The Brotherhood's early, partial counts proved generally accurate in last month's first round vote.
The Shafiq campaign accused the Brotherhood of "deceiving the people" by declaring victory. A campaign spokesman on the independent ONTV channel said counting was still going on with Shafiq slightly ahead so far.

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