Mohammed Morsi Declared President Of Egypt
Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected president of Egypt with 51.7 percent of last weekend’s run-off vote, defeating former general Ahmed Shafiq, the state election committee said on Sunday.
He succeeds Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown 16 months ago after a popular uprising. The military council which has ruled the biggest Arab nation since then has this month curbed the powers of the presidency, meaning the head of state will have to work closely with the army on a planned democratic constitution.
A huge crowd of Morsi supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square erupted in cheers and dancing when the result was read out on live television.
Mr. Morsi now becomes the first Islamist elected to be head of an Arab state. But his victory is an ambiguous milestone in Egypt’s promised transition to democracy
The military council will retain control of the biggest army in the Middle East, whose closest ally is the United States. Morsi has said he will respect international treaties, notably that signed with Israel in 1979, on which much U.S. aid depends.
“President Morsi will struggle to control the levers of state,” Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in Cairo.
“He will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions. Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around,” Zarwan told Reuters. “This would be a mistake.
Mohammed Morsi is an American-educated engineer who received his doctoral degree at the University of Southern California.
