CAIRO: Egypt's prime minister has added his weight to calls for a delay of September's parliamentary elections to allow more time for nascent political parties to organize in the aftermath of President Hosni Mubarak's ouster. In an interview posted Sunday on Egyptian news website Masrawy.com, Essam Sharaf said the delay would allow the nation's "political landscape" time to take shape.
| For or against the Muslim Brotherhood? |
Sharaf made clear that a delay is his personal preference, and that his interim government would do everything it can to ensure a fair and secure vote if the election went ahead as scheduled.
But his view lends considerable weight to complaints by liberal and secularist parties that a September vote would be unfairly advantageous to the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized political group after the fall of Mubarak in February.
| How does a delay fix that? Perhaps a delay gives the most organized political party even more time to organize. |
Sharaf also hinted that he wanted to see a delay so a new constitution could be drafted before the vote. As things stand now, the next legislature will select a panel to draft a new constitution, and some fear a Parliament dominated by Islamists could result in a document with an Islamist slant.
The question of whether the constitution or the elections should come first is one of several key issues dividing Egyptians after Mubarak's ouster. Others are related to the secrecy of the ruling military, as well as disagreements over the extent to which police powers should be curtailed and how best to halt the deterioration of the economy.
Sharaf's wish to see a delay is shared by new political groups that arose from the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising that toppled Mubarak. Most of these groups have their genesis in the youth organizations behind the uprising, and while they are not opposed outright to the Muslim Brotherhood playing a role in post-Mubarak politics, they don't want to see it win a representation disproportionate to its base of support.
| Or proportionate representation, either. It's not clear how many Egyptian voters would like to see Sharia made the law of the land, but I've seen survey numbers up to 70%, which must be an uncomfortable idea for the young secularists who started this brouhaha. |
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