Early election results for Egypt's first democratically elected President, appeared to indicate that Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood defeated Ahmed Shafik, Hosni Mubarak’s former Prime Minister, by a margin of about 4 percentage points, or approximately one million votes.

Election results will only be confirmed later this week. However, a spokesperson for Shafik declared him the true winner and asserted that the Brotherhood had “terrorised voters” but offered no evidence for it.

Meanwhile, ruling generals have imposed martial law, as Brotherhood parliamentarians, refuting the authority of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) or the Supreme Court to dissolve the parliament on the eve of the election, vow to turn up to the chambers as scheduled on Tuesday.

Martial law grants the military power to detain and try civilians in military courts, and the ruling generals have suggested that this could be applied in the case that someone should try to enter the parliamentary building, which is currently guarded by soldiers and police to keep the lawmakers out.

On the eve of the election, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) dissolved the Brotherhood-dominated Parliament and proclaimed all legislative power. The move, made under the guise of a court ruling by a panel of judges appointed by Mubarak, prompted many to suggest it was a pre-emptive attempt by the ruling generals to prevent Islamist control over both presidency and legislature.

The decision breaks the generals' promise to hand over all power to elected civilians by the end of June.

Liberals and Islamists alike have deplored the move as a military coup.

Representatives of the military council, Gen. Mandouh Shahin and Gen. Mohamed el Asser asserted, “we don’t want power”, in an attempt to dissolve fears of the re-establishment of a military-backed autocracy. Speaking at a news conference, the generals highlighted the presidential election as proof of their democratic intentions.

To soften the blow of the power-grab, the ruling military have entered into a period of negotiations over the balance of executive, legislative and military powers with the prospective president. The military council acknowledges that it would have monopoly on lawmaking as well as control over the national budget. The new president would be able to veto any new laws and appoint the Prime Minister and cabinet officials.

State media reported that the generals had picked their own panel to draft a permanent constitution, ignoring the panel chosen by the Parliament although the generals had said that this report was premature.

Brotherhood officials have insisted meanwhile that the struggle had just begun.

Jihad al Hadded, and adviser to the Brotherhood’s lead strategist said that the group was determined to contest the dissolution of Parliament and the creation of another constitutional assembly.

Fatema AbouZeid, a senior policy researcher for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party and a media co-ordinator for the Morsi campaign, said:

"Over the past 18 months we were very keen to avoid any clashes or confrontations with other components of Egypt's political system because we felt that it would have negative consequences for the democratic system and for society as a whole,"

"But now it's very clear that Scaf and other institutions of the state are determined to stand in the way of what we're trying to achieve, and we won't accept this any more. Egypt will not go back to the old regime through any means, legal or illegal.

"If we find that Scaf stands firm against us as we try to fulfil the demands of the revolution, we will go back to the streets and escalate things peacefully to the highest possible stage,"

"Now we have a new factor in Egyptian politics, the Egyptian people themselves, who will not accept a return to the old regime in any form, not after so much Egyptian blood was shed to remove it."

"The revolution is facing a life or death moment and the Egyptian people have put their faith in Dr Morsi to represent them at this time."