The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party claims to have won 34 of the 52 individual seats that were contested in the runoff round on December 5-6, raising the FJP’s projected share of parliamentary seats to nearly two thirds. Meanwhile, the SCAF issued a decree on December 7 delegating presidential powers to Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri, although the decree preserves the council’s executive authority over the armed forces and judiciary.
1) Eleven political parties and movements including the Revolutionary Youth Coalition (RYC), April 6 Movement’s Democratic Front, Hamdeen Sabahi’s presidential campaign, the Democratic Front, the Egyptian Current and the Awareness Party announced that they will relocate their sit-in from Tahrir Square to outside the cabinet building to protest against Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri and his new government. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/7/2011]
2) The Freedom and Justice Party claims to have won 34 of the 52 individual seats that were contested in the runoff round on December 5-6, raising the FJP’s projected share of parliamentary seats to nearly two thirds (according to officially released results, the has only won 22 of the runoff seats so far, with counting still in progress in many districts). An FJP candidate lost a close race against the head of the centrist Adl Party, Mostafa al-Naggar, in Nasr City. The Salafi Nour Party won five of the 36 seats its candidates competed for in the runoff round. The Muslim Brotherhood estimated voter turnout around 30 percent for the two days of voting. [VOA, English, 12/7/2011] [IkhwanWeb, English, 12/7/2011] [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/7/2011] [al-Masry al-Youm, Arabic, 12/7/2011]
3) On December 6, Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie reiterated his previous pledge that the Brotherhood will not field a candidate in the presidential election. Some had speculated that the Brotherhood would back down from this promise, after dropping earlier assurances that it would not seek more than 50 percent of the seats in the People’s Assembly. Badie also expressed support for the SCAF, stating that “the armed forces have our sincerest appreciation and respect for protecting the Egyptian people and their revolution,” while at the same time warning that the Brotherhood would “will push [the SCAF] to meet all of the demands of the Egyptian people” if the military attempts to stall the transition. [IkhwanOnline, Arabic, 12/6/2011] [EgyptSource, English, 12/7/2011]
4) The Freedom and Justice Party announced plans to sue the Salafi Nour Party for “unethical abuse" and misconduct during the polling process. In an official statement, the FJP accused Nour supporters of physically attacking its campaign representatives in Fayyoum and Assiyut on December 5. [al-Ahram, English, 12/7/2011]
5) The FJP’s head, Mohamed Morsi, urged the High Electoral Commission to "learn from the mistakes made in the first phase, to avoid them in the next stages" in a statement posted to Twitter. [IkwhwanWeb, English, 12/7/2011]
NEW CABINET:
6) Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri’s new cabinet will be sworn in by the SCAF later today, December 7, although not all of the nominees have been publicly announced. The new government is expected to retain as many as 12 incumbent ministers from Essam Sharaf’s government, including two holdovers from the Mubarak regime. Ganzouri said that he will not announce his pick for the crucial post of Interior Minister until shortly before the swearing in ceremony, due to the sensitivity of the portfolio. Protesters have demanded a comprehensive restructuring of the Interior Ministry under civilian leadership, but the top candidate for the post is believed to be Major General Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim, who served as Giza’s Security Director under Mubarak. [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 12/7/2011]
7) Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri, an economist and former Minister of Planning, outlined the economic agenda that his new cabinet will pursue. Ganzouri said that cabinet would work to complete major development projects such as the Toshka Project for land reclamation in southern Egypt and the creation of a special economic zone northwest of the Suez Canal, which will become a major hub for industrial production and technological development. Ganzouri envisions the zone as a point of transit for the exchange of goods between Asia, Europe and the United States. Ganzouri will also seek to reopen 1,600 closed factories and encourage plants operating at half-capacity to resume production at full capacity. [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 12/7/2011]
8) The SCAF issued a decree on December 7 delegating presidential powers to Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri, although the decree preserves the council’s executive authority over the armed forces and judiciary. Ganzouri announced earlier this week that the SCAF would revise Articles 56 and 57 of the interim constitution to transfer executive powers to the prime minister before the swearing in of the new cabinet, expected later on December 7. [VOA, English, 12/7/2011] [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/7/2011] [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 12/7/2011]
U.S. POLICY
9) On December 6, Secretary of State Clinton reacted to Egypt’s election results by urging the country’s next leaders to respect human rights. "Transitions require fair and inclusive elections, but they also demand the embrace of democratic norms and rules," Clinton said. "We expect all democratic actors to uphold universal human rights, including women’s rights, to allow free religious practice." [AP, English, 12/7/2011]
10) Security forces put an end to an Ashura celebration attended by nearly 3000 Shia Muslims at Cairo’s Hussein Mosque and detained seven participants. An official from the ministry of Religious Affairs claimed that the Shia had not obtained official permission to hold the celebration, which marks the death of the Prophet Mohamed’s grandson Imam Hussein, and accused them of conducting "barbaric and unreligious rituals" inside the mosque. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/7/2011]
11) Seven human rights groups issued a statement last week warned that human trafficking networks operating in northern Sinai have been detaining migrants — primarily refugees from Eritrea and Sudan — in “torture camps” until relatives pay a ransom. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/7/2011]
Photo Credit: Reuters
Image: 2278ganzouri.jpg