(Guardian - UK)- Jack Shenker- Egypt's generals awarded themselves sweeping political powers in an 11th-hour constitutional declaration that tied the hands of the country's incoming president and cemented military authority over the post-Mubarak era. The announcement on Sunday night came as early presidential election results put the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi ahead of his rival Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's final prime minister. But with thousands of polling stations yet to declare following the two-day runoff vote, the overall winner was too close to call. Pro-change activists and human rights campaigners said the junta's constitutional declaration - which came just days after judges extended the army's ability to arrest civilians and following the dissolution of the Brotherhood-dominated parliament by the country's top court - rendered the scheduled handover of power to a democratically elected executive meaningless.
2012-06-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive