Muslim Brotherhood in post-Mubarak electoral politics of Egypt

Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt became one of the main forces contending for political power in Egypt against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and other established centers of the former Hosni Mubarak regime.

The parliamentary election in November 2011 to January 2012 resulted in dominant parliamentary representation for the Freedom and Justice Party and other Islamic parties. The Brotherhood's leader Mohamed Morsi won the presidential election that followed in June 2012. Morsi became the first democratically elected and first civilian President of Egypt.

The Supreme Council made a series of moves aimed at minimizing the Brotherhood's influence and depriving it of its newly acquired institutional power base. The post-Mubarak ruling establishment had the outcome of the parliamentary election nullified in the courts. At the outset of Morsi's presidency, numerous critical issues were unresolved, including the status of the disbanded parliament and the sweeping powers granted by the military council to itself. The Brotherhood was formulating its response and working on a strategy for protecting its electoral gains in a new situation, when one of their own holds the highest elected office. Having come to power as a revolutionary force, but being historically pragmatic and moderately conservative, they now had a stake also in protecting the constitutional and legal continuity of the state. The electoral success of the Muslim Brotherhood gave rise to misgivings among other leaders and factions of the Egyptian revolution, and also in the United States and elsewhere.