Egypt’s election commission declared Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, winner of the country’s first free presidential election on Sunday. On Monday, Morsi was setting up in the office that Hosni Mubarak was forced out of 16 months ago.
Morsi, a 60-year-old U.S.-trained engineer, narrowly defeated Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, with 51.7 per cent of the vote versus 48.3, by a margin of only 800,000 votes, according to the election commission. Turnout was estimated at 51 per cent.
Morsi’s victory is the first by an Islamist as head of state in the stunning wave of pro-democracy uprisings that swept parts of the Arab world over the past year and a half. But the military’s last-minute power grab, stripping the presidency of most of its powers, sharpens the possibility of confrontation and more of the turmoil that has beset Egypt since Mubarak’s overthrow.
Global News looks at the history of the Muslim Brotherhood:
ORIGINS
– Schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna founded the Brotherhood in the Suez Canal town of Ismailia in 1928, partly in response to the British occupation of Egypt. It was one of the first and most successful movements advocating Islam as a political program in a modern context.
– Within 20 years the movement had grown to more than 500,000 members, with several branch movements in other Arab countries.
– The Brotherhood once had a secret paramilitary section but it now says it is committed to promoting its policies through non-violent and democratic means.
– Mubarak and his government saw the Brotherhood as the greatest threat to its survival but failed to prove any serious act of violence by the movement’s leadership for more than 50 years.
– Brotherhood leaders have argued for social and economic reforms, and argue that given the freedom to choose, most Egyptians would willingly embrace a form of Islamic law.
BANNED
– The Mubarak government repeatedly denied the Brotherhood the right to form a political party, arguing the constitution, which the government wrote, bans religious parties. The Brotherhood in turn said it would not seek recognition as a party under procedures which it rejects as authoritarian.
– The government banned the Brotherhood in 1954 after accusing the group of trying to assassinate President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a charge the Brotherhood has always denied.
– A long period of repression began to ease under President Anwar Sadat in the 1970s. The ban formally remained in place under Mubarak, but the Brotherhood operated openly within limits that varied at the whim of the authorities. The ban was lifted with Mubarak’s ouster.
ELECTIONS
– In Egypt the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary elections in the 1980s was followed by its boycott of the elections of 1990, when it joined most of the country’s opposition in protesting electoral restrictions.
– In the 2000 elections, Brotherhood supporters running as independent candidates won 17 seats, making it the largest opposition bloc in parliament.
– In the 2005 parliamentary elections, members won one-fifth of the seats in parliament, more than any opposition group had held since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.
– In December 2010, the movement said it would shift its political struggle to the streets after November 2010 elections it said were “rigged” to ensure it was ejected from parliament.
– Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 420 of the 508 seats contested in the 2010 elections on November 28 and December 5. The Brotherhood had held 88 seats in the previous parliament, giving it a platform to attack official policy. It pulled out of the elections after winning no seats in the first round.
SUPPORT
– In the absence of systematic polling in Egypt, no one has a clear idea how much support the Brotherhood enjoys. But the group does have an extensive and well-organized network of committed organizers and has won public support through the charitable work of its professional members. They are also influential in professional organizations such as the doctors’ and lawyers’ syndicates.
– Government and ruling party officials had been looking for legal ways to reduce the political role of the Brotherhood, according to sources. But in the absence of a workable plan, the government relied on the police to disrupt the movement’s activities.
– The Brotherhood’s main foreign ally is the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has its origins in the group’s Palestinian branch. The Brotherhood supports the right to armed resistance to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
– With files from The Associated Press
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