Cairo: The dominant showing by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt's first post-revolution elections puts the country on a collision course, analysts say, with emboldened Islamists and the entrenched military set to vie for power.
The powers of the incoming parliament remain unclear and are to be laid out in the as-yet-unwritten constitution, a document that the ruling generals have said they want military-appointed bodies to influence. But the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is calling for real powers for the parliament, including the authority to appoint a prime minister and full control over the writing of the constitution.
Under Mubarak, the Brotherhood was allowed to exist on a tight leash. Thousands of its members were arrested and tortured. Mubarak also pointed to the organisation as the possible alternative to his autocratic rule and used that scenario to scare Western allies, who feared Islamist domination in the region and the unravelling of Egypt's longtime peace treaty with Israel.
A senior legal adviser to the Freedom and Justice Party has said that elected officials from his party would reassess the $1.3 billion (Dh4.8 billion) in annual US aid to the Egyptian military.
In an interview on Egyptian television, the adviser, Ahmad Abu Bakr, said US aid to Egypt, including to the military, does not help the economy or Egyptians and would be subject to debate by the new parliament.
The statements come at a tense moment in US-Egyptian relations, after security forces stormed the offices of 10 civil society organisations, including three American pro-democracy groups, over accusations of illicit foreign funding.
In recent months, US diplomats and other officials have met with members of the Freedom and Justice Party.
