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The Muslim Brotherhood, the dominant power in Egypt’s parliament, chose its deputy head as its presidential candidate Saturday, a move expected to provoke liberals and deepen the ruling military’s suspicion over the growing political power of Islamists in Egypt.

Khairat el-Shater received 58 out of 110 votes in his favor at a meeting of the group’s consultative council, according to Al-Jazeera. The narrow majority suggested rifts within the organisation. The selection was announced late yesterday at a press conference in Cairo.

The nomination of the 62-year-old millionaire, an engineer by training and widely seen as the Brotherhood’s chief financier, drew criticism from some members of the group. Kamal el-Helbawy, the Brotherhood’s former spokesman in Europe, said he was resigning, citing what he said was the organisation’s conflicting stances, the Egyptian state-run daily Al-Akhbar reported today.

The Brotherhood’s move also comes amid political tensions with the drafting of a constitution, boycotted by liberals and leftists who accuse the Islamists of monopolising the process.

Shater, a senior member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council and who was jailed for years under former President Hosni Mubarak, was selected after weeks of debate over whether the organisation should field a candidate in the May election. The Brotherhood, which controls the parliament, had long promised not to run a contender to allay public fear that Islamists would dominate the government.