SALON

Monday, Jun 18, 2012 2:24 AM UTC

Egypt: Morsi is president

New amendments strengthen the hand of the military as Muslim Brotherhood candidate claims presidential win

By

Topics: Middle East,

Egypt: Morsi is presidentAn Egyptian woman shows the ink on her finger after voting in an historic presidential election Wednesday, May 23, 2012, outside a polling station in Cairo, Egypt. (Credit: AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)
This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

CAIRO, Egypt — Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi today claimed to have won the country’s presidential election even as the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) laid down new constitutional declaration amendments giving SCAF considerably more power and limiting the powers afforded the nation’s newly-elected leader.

Global Post

The Muslim Brotherhood, citing preliminary results, said Morsi has taken about 52 percent of the vote, reportedly pushing him ahead of rival Ahmed Shafiq by an extremely small margin of some four percentage points, according to the Associated Press.

The final runoff vote for president was held over June 16-17, with the official winner set to be announced on Thursday.

Meanwhile, SCAF’s new amendments to the constitutional declaration, a powerful document that has served as a kind of interim constitution following the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak by popular protest in February, grant the generals sweeping powers.

The amendments, issued late Sunday and available in Arabic here as well as in English here, give the generals full legislative power after a Supreme Court ruling on Thursday dissolved parliament over voting violations.

They further state that SCAF will retain full control of the military.

Egypt’s new president will not be able to declare war without SCAF’s approval, according to the document’s Article 53/1. It was not immediately clear what powers, if any, the new president will hold.

The amendments also said SCAF will appoint a new panel to draft a constitution if a sufficient assembly is not formed within a week. The proposed constitution will then face a popular referendum within a stated timeline, after which parliamentary elections are to be held.

However, even after the public weighs in on the constitution, the president, SCAF, prime minister or judiciary can ask for revisions if they “find that the new constitution contains an article or more which conflict with the revolution’s goals and its main principles or which conflict with any principal agreed upon in all of Egypt’s former constitutions,” according to a translation of the amendment provided by Ahram Online.

The move is likely to add to widespread concern that SCAF is trying to cling to power after taking control following Mubarak’s overthrow.

More GlobalPost

More Kristin Deasy.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation
57 points58 points | 3 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
38 points39 points | 6 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
38 points39 points | comment
vote
"Apparently, we have deserving and undeserving disasters, Oklahoma senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn explain"
31 points32 points | 2 comments
vote
Obama opposes GOP bill on Keystone XL oil pipeline: The White House said Tuesday that the bill “seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes” by removing a requirement for a presidential permit. The legislation also says no new environmental studies are needed.
20 points21 points | 2 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations