AS THOUSANDS of Egyptians protesting against military rule continued to occupy Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday, the head of the ruling armed forces council said the military would retain control to prevent the country from descending into chaos.
Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi warned: “Egypt is at a crossroads . . . we will either succeed and move towards a smooth economic, political and social transition or the country will face grave consequences and we won’t allow it.”
He said the parliamentary election, set to begin in stages today, would proceed on time, and he urged voters to cast their ballots. He pledged that the army and police would provide security at polling stations and maintain order.
Protesters mounting a “Legitimacy of the Revolution” rally reiterated their demand for the army to rescind power. They have rejected the appointment to the premiership of Kamal Ganzouri, who held the post under the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Although he has said he would have full authority, he has no credibility with the revolutionaries.
The gathering in Tahrir Square, the cradle of the democracy movement, has called on the former head of the international nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, to take the job vacated last week by discredited Essam Sharaf.
Mr ElBaradei has said he would drop his bid for the presidency if he was appointed prime minister. An authoritative source told The Irish Timesthat the entire ruling military council vetoed him as a possible replacement.
Dr ElBaradei, said the source, has been “waiting for the street to ask him [while] his popularity has snowballed”. The source observed that the military is unprepared to share power.
His assessment was borne out by the field marshal’s statement which said: “The position of the armed forces will remain as it is. It will not change in any new constitution.”
The army has laid down basic demands for what will be included in the constitution to be drafted after the new parliament convenes. The army insists on oversight of its budget and administration as well as national security. To ensure that these articles are included, the military seeks to appoint 80 of the 100 members of the constitutional commission.
These demands have created an unbridgeable rift between revolutionaries and generals and have led to more than a week of mass action against the military council in Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailiya and elsewhere.
Clashes have left 40 dead and more than 3,000 injured.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to win a large bloc of seats in the new popular assembly, contends that the military should ask it to form a new government, in spite of reservations about the movement held by secular Egyptians and western powers. “If the government is not representative of parliament, the assembly will block all its decisions,” said Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozian.
Youssef Zaki, a physician and businessman, said the Brotherhood expected to “share power with the military but the military will not share power with the Brotherhood”, which is Egypt’s best organised socio-political movement.
He said that since the fall of the Mubarak regime nine months ago, the army had “lost legitimacy and credibility” while the Brotherhood had shed supporters by courting first the military and then the democracy movement, antagonising the revolutionaries who are growing increasingly representative of the people.
Transition to democracy: Egypt’s election rules
EGYPT’S POLITICAL crisis has overshadowed the first election since the uprising that was meant to trigger transition to democratic rule.
However, Egyptians are voting under rules set by the military. They are set to choose 498 members of the lower house from among 6,700 candidates; 332 seats will be selected from party lists according to proportional representation while 166 seats will be allocated to independents under a first past the post system. Ten members will be nominated by the military. Seats are equally divided between professionals and farmers/workers, under an arrangement adopted in 1964 to ensure representation of 70 per cent of the populace. This has since become meaningless. The second phase of voting will take place two weeks from now and the third in early January. Voting for the upper house, the Shura Council, is scheduled for January.
Forty party lists and blocs composed of multiple parties are standing, including at least three parties established by former ruling National Democratic Party members whom the democracy movement has tried and failed to exclude.
International organisations are permitted to "witness" rather than "monitor" the elections, although the independent Egyptian Human Rights Organisation, which had called for their postponement due to the volatile situation, will deploy monitors at polling stations. MICHAEL JANSEN