Generals now in power, Muslim Brotherhood says

CAIRO, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, said Wednesday the old military guards were again holding the reins of power in Egypt.

Mohammed Morsi in 2012 became Egypt's first president ever to be elected through a democratic election. A FJP leader, he was removed from office by the military last year amid frustration with his Islamic ideologies.

"The generals are the de facto rulers of Egypt today," the party, now banned from politics, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Muslim Brotherhood has expressed frustration with the military leaders who took power after Morsi's ouster, saying it was the generals who were trampling the rights of the people.

The Islamist organization said Wednesday political leaders should uphold the spirit of the 2011 revolution that resulted in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a career air force officer.

"It is time for everyone, especially civil forces allied with the military, to understand that the key to the solution for what ails the country is to respect the popular will indicated by the ballot box, and not to trample constitutional legitimacy," the FJP statement read.

Ibrahim Mehleb, the former housing minister and member of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, was asked Tuesday by interim President Adly Mansour to form a new government.