Conflict with Egypt military to remain, say experts

By Rizwan Khatik - Mon Jun 25, 6:29 am

Cairo: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Mursi has been elected Egypt’s first president since Hosni Mubarak’s toppling, an election commission announced on Sunday.

Mursi, a US-educated engineering professor, collected 13.230 million or 51.73 per cent of the valid votes cast in the June 16-17 presidential run-off, said Farouk Sultan, the head of the commission.

His opponent, Ahmad Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, gained 12.347 million or 48.27 per cent, Sultan told a press conference held amid tight security in Cairo.

“Mursi’s election means calm on the streets,” Amr Hashem, an expert at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies in Egypt, said on Sunday. “But conflict will remain between the Brotherhood and the military over the presidential powers perceived to have been seized by the generals,” he added.

Mursi has said that he will insist on getting full authority as a president. He also promised to form a broad-based coalition government with the prime minister to be picked from outside the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. He, moreover, pledged to build a civil and democratic state for all Egyptians.