Muslim Brotherhood Confronts Military, Demands Power

Meanwhile, Ahmed Shafiq claiming he won election
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 19, 2012 7:48 AM CDT
Muslim Brotherhood Confronts Military, Demands Power
Egyptians supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood celebrate a premature victory for their presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi on June 18, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt.   (Getty Images)

The Muslim Brotherhood isn't taking the Egyptian military's power grab lying down. Today, it called for a "million-man march" to protest the new constitution, and said it would attempt to convene parliament, defying the Supreme Constitutional Court ruling dissolving it, the BBC reports. That could set up a dramatic confrontation, because security forces have been posted outside the parliament building with orders not to allow the MPs to enter.

"The revolution is facing a life or death moment," a Brotherhood official said yesterday, condemning the military in the harshest terms the party has used so far, the Guardian reports. The Brotherhood says its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won this weekend's election. Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq claims the same thing, but has no numbers to back it up, the Wall Street Journal reports; instead he's claiming voter fraud, and relying on the Presidential Election Commission—which is headed by a Mubarak appointee—to hand him the win. (More Egypt stories.)

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