The parliamentary elections in Egypt only have one purpose: seating a new “interim” parliament long enough to write a new constitution and then hold new elections under that constitution. Now, not so much.

That’s because after the first round of votes led to landslide victories by a pair of Islamist parties the military junta is condemning the upcoming parliament as “not representative” of the true will of the Egyptian voters, even though they voted for them.

Gen. Mukhtar Mulla says that instead of allowing parliament to write the constitution the junta will now appoint a new council of its own to oversee the drafting of the constitution and will “limit” the already mostly powerless parliament.

The move sets up a serious battle between the hugely unpopular military junta and the surprisingly well-supported Islamist movements, after top members of the Muslim Brotherhood said their primary goal in parliament would be ending the junta’s dominance of society and bringing Egypt toward civilian rule.

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