Muslim Brotherhood Gets Leadership Role in Egypt's Parliament

January 17, 2012

Newly elected members of Egypt's parliament announced this week a power-sharing plan to install a Muslim Brotherhood leader as speaker, the Washington Post reports. The agreement among six political parties all but guarantees that the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party will lead Egypt's first elected governing body since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February, and the Islamist party is expected to control as many as half the seats. A new constitution still is yet to be written, and Egypt's interim military rulers have made it clear that they will oversee the process and possibly influence the selection of the constituent assembly.