EGYPT’S SUPREME military council yesterday suspended the country’s constitution and dissolved both houses of parliament, meeting two of the primary demands of the popular democracy movement that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak on Friday.
The council, headed by defence minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, also said the council would run the country for six months or until parliamentary and presidential elections are held.
During an unprecedented three-hour press conference following the first meeting of his cabinet, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said: “Our concern . . . is to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen.” He announced that he would fill empty cabinet posts with qualified figures who had the trust of the people.
The term of this cabinet, appointed by the deposed president and answerable to the military, could, however, be disputed by the democracy movement. Twenty-five leading movement figures who met on Friday ahead of the ousting of Mr Mubarak have called for the establishment of a presidential council of four or five prominent personalities, including a military man, to handle the transition from Mr Mubarak’s one-man rule to democracy. Appointees to this body would not be permitted to stand for office in the coming presidential or parliamentary elections.
Mohamed Aboulghar, a veteran activist who attended the meeting, told The Irish Times it had been agreed that the old cabinet could stay in office until a new government of technocrats could be formed.
In addition to the steps taken by the military yesterday, the 25 insisted that future elections should be based on proportional representation.
Dr Aboulghar – who is associated with the reform movement launched a year ago by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei – said that the transition will “take time. We cannot have elections now”. Egyptians must exercise the “right to form real political parties”.
This right, and the right to publish newspapers, he insisted, must be granted immediately. He also pointed out that a commission had to be constituted to rewrite the constitution, which then had to be approved by a referendum.
“The army gave us permission to return to [Tahrir] Square on Friday. If [the command] does not deliver we will return to the square and stay there,” he said.
On the situation at present, he said, “So far, so good.”
But he expressed some concern about the possible “ambition of some officers to take over”.
But, he said: “We are in a very strong situation if they try to take over . . . there would be a very strong reaction.”
The democracy movement was determined to adhere to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and other international agreements, he said. “No group, not even the Muslim Brothers, asked for any changes. Peace in the Middle East does not depend on Egypt. Peace depends on Israel. The collapse of the peace process has not been caused by any Arab country, not the Palestinians, not Hamas.”
Early repeal of the emergency measures imposed in 1981 after the assassination of Mr Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, is seen as a test of the military’s intentions.
Protest organisers were reportedly forming a council of trustees to defend the gains already made by the uprising and ensure a swift transition from military to democratic rule.
In Tahrir Square, democracy demonstrators argued with military policemen over whether or not they would comply with orders to leave the area while workers continued scattered protests against low salaries at ceramics and textile factories. With 50 per cent of Egypt’s 80 million people living on or below the poverty line of €1.50 a day, analysts had predicted labour unrest in the wake of the democracy demonstrations.