The Muslim Brotherhood has warned against a dangerous confrontation between the people and the army if presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq wins the presidency. Brotherhood spokesperson Mahmoud Ghozlan told the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the fact that Shafiq's campaign insists on claiming he won reveals that the ruling military council and the Presidential Elections Commission have bad intentions, warning against vote rigging. The commission is expected to announce the official runoff election results Thursday. Ghozlan said a victory for Shafiq, who served as minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, would indicate that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had launched a military coup. “Overturning the result of the vote will lead to confrontation between the people and the army,” he said, adding that the military council should submit to popular will. The Brotherhood Guidance Bureau is set to meet Wednesday to discuss what action to take if Shafiq is declared the winner, contrary to results the group has documented. Ghozlan said the Guidance Bureau would not play a role in Morsy's choice of aides if he is declared the winner. “This is left entirely to Morsy,” he said. Ghozlan said the group rejects the recently made supplement to the Constitutional Declaration that has been governing the country since last spring. He said the military council has no power to issue such a document and that it curtails the president's powers. He also said the Brotherhood does not approve of the Supreme Constitutional Court decision that ordered the dissolution of Parliament. Ghozlan denied that the Brotherhood and the SCAF are negotiating so that the Brotherhood would accept the Constitutional Declaration supplement and the dissolution of Parliament in returning for announcing Morsy as the new president. Meanwhile, the Morsy and Shafiq campaigns both continued to claim their candidates have won in the election conducted on Saturday and Sunday. Morsy campaign spokesperson Mohamed Saeed said its candidate won 52 percent of the votes, while Shafiq campaign spokesperson Ahmed Sarhan said its candidate won 51.5 percent of the votes. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
