Supporters of Mohammed Morsi gather in Tahrir Square Monday.
CAIRO—The Muslim Brotherhood appeared headed for a showdown with Egypt's ruling generals hours after claiming victory in Egypt's first freely contested presidential election, even as the military sought to assure the public it would hand over power.
The Brotherhood, intent on reclaiming some of the powers that the military has claimed for itself in recent days, said it would convene Parliament on Tuesday in defiance of a court order dissolving the body, and called on Egyptians to take to the streets to challenge the military's recent moves to consolidate power.
The calls sets up a possible showdown with security forces who have been ordered to keep all lawmakers from entering the Parliament building.
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Maj.-Gens. Mohamed el Assar, left, and Mamdouh Shahin address a news conference.
The Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohammed Morsi, and his rival, ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, both claimed victory in the weekend vote. But the Brotherhood's precinct-by-precinct reporting of results convinced many analysts it was the more reliable of the two camps, showing Mr. Morsi winning 52% of the vote.
Mr. Shafiq's campaign has claimed victory by the same margin, but hasn't provided numbers of its own to challenge the Morsi campaign's results for any individual precinct.
Instead, Mr. Shafiq's campaign appears to be hoping the Presidential Election Commission will back its allegations of voter fraud and irregularities to tip the race in Mr. Shafiq's favor.
Mr. Shafiq's candidacy was made possible by the commission, which rejected a law passed by the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Parliament—and approved by the military—that would have banned Mr. Shafiq from running because of his ties to the old regime.
Likely president-elect Mohamed Morsi promises to unite Egyptians after the Muslim Brotherhood declares early victory. Video courtesy of Reuters.
The commission is headed by a judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Hosni Mubarak and came up as a judge serving in state security courts used to try political dissidents. The commission's decisions are unappealable.
The confrontation with the Brotherhood, brewing for months, has boiled over in just the past week, as the Egyptian state seemed to mobilize on multiple fronts to trim the Brotherhood's political ambitions.
On Wednesday, the military-appointed Minister of Justice declared martial law, giving the military sweeping powers to enforce law and order. On Thursday, the Supreme Court, which is stacked with Mubarak-era judges, dissolved Parliament on a technicality. The country's ruling generals claimed all of the Parliament's legislative powers for itself.
Then on Sunday, shortly after polls closed in the presidential vote, the military issued a constitutional decree that gave the country's top generals many of the executive powers previously reserved for the president.
The Brotherhood and the secular opposition ranks denounced what they perceived as a military coup.
But the ruling appears to have convinced many revolutionaries, who had been considering boycotting the weekend vote, that the military and remnants of the Mubarak regime were a far greater threat than the Brotherhood, pushing them to vote for Mr. Morsi despite unease with the group's Islamist ideology.
The U.S. military, which is Egypt's primary source of military aid, also relayed its concern to Egypt's ruling generals.
"We're deeply concerned about new amendments to the constitution declaration, including the timing of their announcements as polls were closing for the presidential election," Pentagon spokesman George Little said Monday.
Facing a freshly united opposition, and criticism from its most important ally, the military tried to assuage public opinion on Monday. Two Egyptian generals convened a rare news conference in which they reiterated the military's commitment to handing over power to a civilian president by June 30.
"Everyone is blowing this out of proportion," said Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Assar, a member of the interim ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. "No one will return Egypt to the past, no matter who wins the presidency."
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Egypt's incoming president, Gen. Assar said, would still retain the power to appoint ministers and veto legislation, despite the legislative authority the military has assumed.
"We want a little more trust in us," said Gen. Assar. "Stop the criticisms that we are a state within a state. Please. Stop."
Later on Monday, the military announced the formation a new National Defense Council that would bring together the country's newly elected leaders and top generals. It wasn't clear what the council's duties would be.
The Brotherhood and other opposition forces are looking for far more substantive concessions from the country's military rulers. It plans to convene Parliament as scheduled, in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling.
In a victory speech early Monday morning, Mr. Morsi followed the conciliatory tone and made no mention of Islamic law, instead stressing the group's commitment to building a civil, democratic and constitutional state.
Secular opposition activists said both sides of the Islamist-secular divide appeared to have been jolted to put aside their deep differences by the recent steps by the military to consolidate power.
"They now seem more willing to cooperate with us," said Shadi Ghazali Harb, a secular revolutionary youth leader who has been meeting regularly with the Brotherhood in recent days. "We hope this cooperation will extend to more than just talking and saying good stuff."
—Matt Bradleyand Tamer El-Ghobashy contributed to this article.
Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com and Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared June 19, 2012, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Egypt Showdown Gains Momentum.
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