|
29th June, 2012
CAIRO: Egypt was to decide Thursday the venue for Islamist Mohamed Morsi’s swearing in as the nation’s first civilian president, as Washington praised the military for facilitating a “free” poll.
Media reports said that Morsi remained in talks with a cross-section of Egyptian society ahead of appointing a prime minister and a cabinet that would largely comprise of technocrats.
Morsi’s spokesman Yasser Ali told the official MENA news agency that the venue for the Islamist’s swearing in ceremony was to be decided Thursday.
Traditionally the president takes the oath in Egypt’s parliament but the country’s top court has ordered what was an Islamist-dominated parliament to be disbanded.
The military subsequently assumed legislative powers and also formed a powerful national security council that is headed by the president but dominated by generals.
Media reports said that Morsi could take the oath in front of the constitutional court building, but by doing so he would be acknowledging the court’s decision to dissolve the parliament.
The president-elect meanwhile was “working on reaching some compromises on various issues so that all the parties are able to work together,” Egyptian media quoted a Morsi aide as saying on Wednesday.
Morsi, Egypt’s first civilian president, and its first elected leader since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, still has to contend with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
The SCAF, which took control after Mubarak resigned, will retain broad powers even after it formally transfers control to Morsi at the end of June.
The president-elect has already met Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the SCAF, a delegation from Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, as well as from the Coptic Christian church, whose members have voiced concern over the election of an Islamist president.
Newspapers said Morsi had likewise held talks with families of “martyrs” killed in last year’s uprising to discuss their demands for renewed trials of those responsible.
On the political front, Morsi has to face what is a powerful military.
The military reserves the right to appoint a new constituent assembly should the one elected by parliament be disbanded by a court decision expected on September 1.
But the Muslim Brotherhood has insisted that only parliament can appoint the assembly.
Morsi was the Brotherhood’s presidential candidate, but he resigned from the movement in order to take the top job, pledging to represent all Egyptians.
“All these details are on the table for discussion,” a senior aide to Morsi said on Tuesday of the military’s powers. “Nothing has been settled yet, and no decision has been taken.”
A court ruling on Tuesday pushed back the reach of the military in a ruling welcomed by human rights groups.
Egypt’s administrative court suspended a justice ministry decision that had empowered the military to arrest civilians, responding to an appeal by 17 rights groups against the controversial June 13 decree.
|
