An Egyptian woman casts her ballot Wednesday: Egypt's first truly competitive presidential election may not have been perfect, some say, but it was a significant step forward.

Wissam Nassar/Corbis

gypt's Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory Monday in the country's first-ever competitive presidential election. The apparent victory of Islamist candidate Mohamed Morsi was undercut by a new interim constitution handed down Sunday by the military council running Egypt, giving the military control over all laws, the national budget, final say over any declaration of war, and immunity from all oversight. The military junta also named all 100 representatives of a commission to write a permanent constitution. "The new constitutional declaration completed Egypt's official transformation into a military dictatorship," says Hossam Bahgat at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.