CAIRO — Seeking to reassure Egyptians and the world about its intention to return to civilian democracy, the military-led interim government on Tuesday laid out a brisk timetable to overhaul Egypt’s suspended constitution, elect a new Parliament and choose a new president, all in the space of about six months
The release of the new timetable, issued in the name of the interim
president, Adli Mansour, appeared intended to show steps toward civilian
democracy after the military’s mass shooting of more than 50 Islamist
protesters on Monday raised new doubts about the democratic promises of
the generals who ousted former President Mohamed Morsi last week. Under
United States law, if Washington officials deems the generals’ takeover
to be a “coup” or decides that Cairo is moving away from democracy, then
the Egyptian military stands to lose about $1.3 billion a year in
American aid.
Previous schedules for Egypt’s political transition, however, have often
gone unmet, especially under the roughly 18 months of military rule
that ended last summer.
Mr. Mansour continued to struggle to assemble an interim cabinet after a
handful of candidates for prime minister dropped out or fell away. Mr.
Mansour was preparing to swear in Mohamed ElBaradei, the Noble-prize
winning former diplomat and prominent liberal, on Sunday when the one
major Islamist party that has supported Mr. Morsi’s ouster refused to
accept Mr. ElBaradei.
On Tuesday, Mr. Mansour was reported to be moving to name Samir Radwan, a
former finance minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Al Nour,
the ultraconservative Islamist party supporting Mr. Morsi’s ouster,
signaled that it could accept Mr. Radwan, deeming him a “technocrat”
outside Egypt’s recent political battles.
Mr. Mansour, the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court who
was tapped by the generals as interim president, has not spoken publicly
since he was sworn in. Just before midnight Monday, he issued a
“constitutional declaration” laying out a transitional road map that
called for the immediate formation of 10-person committee to revise the
charter approved in December. The panel would be composed of six judges
chosen by three top courts — two from each — along with four Egyptian
law professors. It was unclear who would pick the four professors.
The committee is expected to complete their revisions in about a month
and then pass them to a larger committee of 50 people representing
various government institutions, syndicates and social groups as well as
other prominent figures. Some would be selected by their institutions
and the others chose by Mr. Mansour and his soon-to-be-named cabinet.
The military and the police would both pick representatives.
If approved by the larger committee, the revisions would move to a
public referendum after about three months, followed in about two more
weeks by parliamentary elections. Mr. Mansour’s plan called for
presidential elections about three months after ratification of the new
charter.
Neither Mr. Monsour nor the military commander who named him, Gen. Abdul
Fattah el-Sisi, have said anything about how they plan to include Mr.
Morsi’s legions of Islamist supporters in the political process.
Millions oppose his ouster as illegitimate and undemocratic.
Mr. Morsi’s party, formed by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood,
won nearly half the seats in the last parliamentary election, and more
conservative Islamist groups known as Salafis won nearly a quarter more.
Mr. Morsi, who is now in military detention without charges at an
undisclosed location, was elected with a little more than 51 percent of
the vote more than a year ago. All acknowledged that his popularity has
slipped, and millions marched in the streets on the anniversary of Mr.
Morsi’s inauguration to call for his removal.
But he still has millions of ardent supporters and since his ouster tens
of thousands have demonstrated in the streets to call for his
reinstatement.
The military-led government has issued arrest warrants for hundreds of
top Brotherhood leaders and jailed some of them. And it has shut down
the Brotherhood’s satellite television network and two other Islamist
channels.
Calling the forced ouster of an elected president by a small group of
generals a “coup,” the Brotherhood has vowed to oppose the new
military-led government as a violation of democratic principles.