Post by peterd on Aug 6, 2013 9:02:05 GMT -8
Egypt - Politics
Egyptian military chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi strongly criticized the United States for refusing to explicitly endorse his ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. In a rare interview with a foreign news organization published 02 August 2013 , an angry Sissi told The Washington Post that the Obama administration "turned (its) back on the Egyptians, and they won't forget that." In the interview, Sissi, who also serves as defense minister, urged the United States to press Egyptian Islamists to end a month-long series of protests and sit-ins against the ouster of Morsi. Sissi told The Washington Post that he does not aspire to authority, but he also did not explicitly rule out running for president in the future.
In a separate nationally televised address, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel-Latif promised the protesters "safe passage" if they leave the camps. But, he also accused Islamist protest organizers of brainwashing the demonstrators and being involved in murders, torture and abductions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said the government has "no desire" to use force to clear two protest camps occupied by tens of thousands of Morsi supporters in Cairo.
Secretary of State John Kerry gave his approval for Egypt's military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi in an interview 01 August 2013 to Pakistan's Geo News. "In effect, they were restoring democracy," Kerry said of Egypt's military. "The military did not take over, to the best of our judgment—so far, so far—to run the country. There's a civilian government.... "The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of the descent into chaos, into violence." “Does Secretary Kerry accept Defense Secretary Hagel to step in and remove Obama if large protests take place in America?” a spokesman of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Gehad el-Haddad, asked.
This came as civilian officials warned of plans to disperse pro-Morsi encampments in Cairo. “The last thing that we want is more violence,” Kerry said 02 August 2013. “The temporary government has a responsibility with respect to demonstrators to give them the space to be able to demonstrate in peace. But at the same time, the demonstrators have a responsibility not to stop everything from proceeding in Egypt.”
On 03 July 2013, Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that in line with the military's ultimatum, the country's new constitution would be suspended and the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, would be given authority to conduct the country's affairs. Under the old constitution that had existed under President Mubarak, in the event there was no president, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court would become the interim president. The Supreme Constitutional Court had previously ruled that the new constitution drafted under President Morsi was illegal. The head of the Supreme Constitutional Court was to continue to run the country until the constitution could be amended and new presidential and parliamentary elections held.
In addition to the announcement of the new roadmap on 3 July 2013, it was also reported that members of the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership had been arrested. There were initially conflicting reports about the whereabouts of President Morsi himself, but there was no clear indication of whether he would be detained as part of the military's plan. The military insisted that freedom of the press would be respected, so long as it was in keeping with the national interest, and that it would respond with any means necessary to prevent violence and other attempts to disturb the peace while its plan was carried out. In the announcement, al-Sisi also made it clear that it was the position of the military that they were not intervening directly in the political process, but merely responding to a call from the people to find a resolution to the ongoing political crisis. Al-Sisi outlined how the military had sought to facilitate a negotiated settlement in June 2013 and had met with President Morsi numerous times, blaming his intransigence for their decision to issue the ultimatum and proceed with their roadmap for resolving the crisis. On 4 July 2013, Adli Mansour was officially sworn in as the country's interim leader.
On 6 July 2013, it was reported that Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was slated to be sworn-in as interim prime minister by interim President Adly Mansour. A presidential spokesman said, however, that there were several options for the job and the presidency had to take account of opposition to ElBaradei. The Nour Party, Egypt's second largest Islamist group, opposed ElBaradei and threatened to withdraw its support for the military-backed government. The interim government subsequently backed further away from the appointment of ElBaradei on 7 July 2013, but the Nour Party still withdrew from talks with the new government on 8 July 2013 in protest over the deaths of dozens of protesters outside of a facility belonging to Egypt's Republican Guard, where former President Mohamed Morsi was believed to be held.
On 8 July 2013, interim President Adly Mansour outlined his transition plan for Egypt, which notably required the establishment within 15 days of a panel to amend the constitution drafted under former President Mohamed Morsi. After the panel had drafted its changes, they would be put to a referendum, expected to be organized within 5 months. This would then clear the way for new parliamentary elections within 2 months of that referendum, which at the time it was hoped would be held by early 2014. After a new parliament was elected, an election for a new president could be held. The Muslim Brotherhood immediately rejected the plans, continue to call for President Morsi's reinstatement. The Tamarod protest movement also called Mansour's decree dictatorial and a "setback for the revolution," saying the movement had not been consulted and that the decree gave the interim government far too much power. The Tamarod movement suggested it would seek to submit its own recommendations to President Mansour.
In addition to the announcement of President Mansour's transition plan on 8 July 2013, the interim government also continued to look for a candidate for interim prime minister that would be acceptable to all parties. The major impediment to this continued to be the opposition to proposed candidates from the hard-line Islamist Nour Party. On 9 July 2013, there were reports that Nour might be prepared to accept the appointment of economist Samir Radwan, who the Nour Party felt would fit its requirement for a neutral technocrat. On 9 July 2013, it was announced that the interim government had appointed former finance minister Hazem el-Beblawi as interim Prime Minister and Mohamed ElBaradei as interim Vice President. It was unclear whether or not all members of the the Tamarod movement, most importantly the Nour Party, would accept the appointments. Nour had already expressed its opposition to the appointment of ElBaradei as Prime Minister.
Egyptians have been protesting almost continuously since demonstrations toppled the 30-year reign of Hosni long-time president Mubarak in February of 2011. But activist groups have splintered, alliances have shifted and competing protests across the country left more than 100 dead in July 2013 alone, one of the bloodiest periods, after the Egyptian military toppled President Morsi and put him under house arrest.
Neither side in the Egyptian conflict had shown much taste for reconciliation. Commenting on TV coverage, Rawya Rageh noted that "The rhetoric used by presenters and their guests, particularly on private stations – who Morsi had come at loggerheads with particularly during his last days in office – has gone beyond trying to isolate the Brotherhood and veered into the more serious territory of demonizing and dehumanizing them. Pro-Morsi sit-ins in the eastern and southern part of the capital have been repeatedly described as pools of filth covered in human excrement, and occupied by lice-ridden people with skin disease.... The Muslim Brotherhood’s channel Misr 25 and other TV stations backing Morsi were promptly shut down the day he was removed from office. They, too, had been engaged in a similar campaign of demonizing Morsi’s opposition for months ahead of the June 30 protests."
Egyptian political developments are seen by some as manifestations of what many inside and outside of academia have called the "deep state" - an elite which has manipulated and controlled the political system. The divisions plaguing Egypt often are portrayed as a struggle between those for and against ousted President Mohamed Morsi. But for those on Morsi's side, there appeared to be a far more sinister player on the scene - moving against whatever progress Egypt has seen since the 2011 uprising. The deep state - a concept rooted in the old Ottoman Empire and popularized in recent years in Turkey - pits conservatives against Islamists who would bring change. Even some opposed to both the Mubarak and the Morsi governments saw a deep state triumphant. Morsi was opposed by the judiciary, but also the media, the foreign office, the police force, the military, Al Azhar mosque and the church. And they resisted.
Mohamed Soudan, foreign secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing said, “As soon as the Revolution of 25th of January started, there is a conspiracy against this revolution. There is a deep state. There is corruption. There is counter-revolution started also.” Soudan said this “deep state” aimed to revive everything the protesters on Tahrir Square two years ago tried sweep away. “Now the police state is coming back," he said. "The army state is coming back. The conspiracy of the former regime, Mubarak regime is coming back."
Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour called for the Muslim Brotherhood to join the military-led transition and take part in upcoming votes to decide on a new constitution, parliament, and president. But the Brotherhood refused, insisting that doing so would essentially be giving approval to what it views as a military coup against the government of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader. "The entire political process is nothing more than a sham. And participating in it gives it legitimacy," said Gehad El-Haddad, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, in an interview with VOA. It makes little sense, Haddad said, for the Brotherhood to try to win elections as it did for the past two years, if it is does not believe that Egypt's military will allow it to take power again. "There is no guarantee the military will not do this again," he said. "We've already gone through a presidential election, we've gone through parliamentary elections, we've gone through a constitutional referendum."
Background
The Egyptian public is polarized between the secular, leftist and Christian opposition and the more numerous and better organized Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. The Muslim Brotherhood, President Mohamed Morsi's former party, supports the new constitution. Members of Egypt's liberal, secular and Christian opposition, however, fear it will erode civil liberties because it increases the role of Islamic law and does not mention women's rights. Egypt's judiciary, appointed by Mubarak, refused to accept the popularly elected government and has become the active center of opposition to it. Senior judges have angered the Islamists by annulling election laws and acquitting officials who served under the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak.
The greatest threat to domestic stability in Egypt results from popular frustration with the country's economic performance and lack of economic opportunity. Approximately one-fifth of Egypt's 80 million people live below the poverty line, despite a per capita GDP of almost $6,200 [2010 PPP estimate]. Officially, unemployment rates rose from 7.9 percent in 1999/2000 to 9.7 percent in 2010; independent estimates, however, place the real extent of unemployment at somewhere between twelve and twenty-five percent of the labor force. In 2010, the government spent more on infrastructure and public projects, and exports drove GDP growth to more than 5%, but GDP growth in 2011 is unlikely to bounce back to pre-global financial recession levels, when it stood at 7%. Despite the relatively high levels of economic growth over the past few years, living conditions for the average Egyptian remain poor.
The declared state of emergency [repealed on 31 May 2012] had been in place since 1981. The state of emergency allowed internal security services to renew periods of "administrative detention" indefinitely. Egyptian human rights organizations estimated in 2007 that 4,000 to 5,000 people remained in prolonged detention without charge under the law, though Minister of Interior Habib Al Adly stated that the total number of political prisoners and detainees does not exceed 1,800. There were varied and conflicting estimates of the number of "extraordinary detainees" (citizens held by the government, often without trial, for alleged political crimes). In 2006, credible domestic and international NGOs estimated that there were between 6,000 and 10,000 such detainees in addition to the prisoners in the ordinary criminal justice system. The government held detainees, including many MB activists, for several weeks to several months or longer, and did not permit international humanitarian organizations access to political prisoners.
In November 2011 the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) took many by surprise when it won 47 percent of seats in Egypt’s lower house of parliament. By early 2012 Muslim Brotherhood politicians dominated both houses of parliament, after initially pledging to contest a minority of seats, and the prospect of an executive branch under the group's control raised fears that the country had ousted one authoritarian government only to replace it with another.
Since the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory in Egypt’s first democratic elections in six decades, the once-banned Islamist group has been faced with the task of cleaning up the corruption and reversing the political repression that flourished under Mubarak. Progress has been slow, at best.
The country’s transition to democracy continued to be beset by political turmoil, as well as the breakdown of law and order and established social norms. This breakdown had the largest effect on society’s most vulnerable elements, including women and minorities, who often became the target of violent attacks. The most significant human rights problems during the year were: a) threats to women’s rights, with an increasingly challenging environment in which women faced assaults and sexual harassment and often were unable to assemble peacefully without male protection; b) failure to prosecute perpetrators of violence against religious minorities and in some cases to protect minorities from violence; and c) threats to freedom of speech, press, and association, as security forces assaulted, abused, and arrested journalists who sought to cover clashes between the military and protesters while the SCAF was in power. Courts convicted persons charged in private lawsuits with “insulting” religions, government figures, and the Prophet Muhammad, and “harming national unity.” A restrictive nongovernmental organization (NGO) law continued to hinder freedom of association.
The lower house that was elected at the end of 2011 was dissolved in mid-2012 after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that the election of one third of its seats had been invalid because they should have been reserved for independents without overt party affiliation. The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and ultra-conservative Salafi parties dominate the upper house; two-thirds of its seats were elected in early 2012, on a very low turnout, and the remaining one third of its members were appointed by Morsi, who sought to lessen the Islamist bias by selecting several notable liberals and Christians.
On 24 June 2012 Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was declared the winner of Egypt's presidential run-off. Egypt's election commission announced that Morsi won nearly 52 percent of the vote, beating former prime minister and Mubarak-era official Ahmed Shafiq. The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/egypt/politics.htm
Egyptian military chief Abdel Fattah el-Sissi strongly criticized the United States for refusing to explicitly endorse his ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. In a rare interview with a foreign news organization published 02 August 2013 , an angry Sissi told The Washington Post that the Obama administration "turned (its) back on the Egyptians, and they won't forget that." In the interview, Sissi, who also serves as defense minister, urged the United States to press Egyptian Islamists to end a month-long series of protests and sit-ins against the ouster of Morsi. Sissi told The Washington Post that he does not aspire to authority, but he also did not explicitly rule out running for president in the future.
In a separate nationally televised address, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel-Latif promised the protesters "safe passage" if they leave the camps. But, he also accused Islamist protest organizers of brainwashing the demonstrators and being involved in murders, torture and abductions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said the government has "no desire" to use force to clear two protest camps occupied by tens of thousands of Morsi supporters in Cairo.
Secretary of State John Kerry gave his approval for Egypt's military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi in an interview 01 August 2013 to Pakistan's Geo News. "In effect, they were restoring democracy," Kerry said of Egypt's military. "The military did not take over, to the best of our judgment—so far, so far—to run the country. There's a civilian government.... "The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of the descent into chaos, into violence." “Does Secretary Kerry accept Defense Secretary Hagel to step in and remove Obama if large protests take place in America?” a spokesman of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Gehad el-Haddad, asked.
This came as civilian officials warned of plans to disperse pro-Morsi encampments in Cairo. “The last thing that we want is more violence,” Kerry said 02 August 2013. “The temporary government has a responsibility with respect to demonstrators to give them the space to be able to demonstrate in peace. But at the same time, the demonstrators have a responsibility not to stop everything from proceeding in Egypt.”
On 03 July 2013, Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that in line with the military's ultimatum, the country's new constitution would be suspended and the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, would be given authority to conduct the country's affairs. Under the old constitution that had existed under President Mubarak, in the event there was no president, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court would become the interim president. The Supreme Constitutional Court had previously ruled that the new constitution drafted under President Morsi was illegal. The head of the Supreme Constitutional Court was to continue to run the country until the constitution could be amended and new presidential and parliamentary elections held.
In addition to the announcement of the new roadmap on 3 July 2013, it was also reported that members of the Muslim Brotherhood's leadership had been arrested. There were initially conflicting reports about the whereabouts of President Morsi himself, but there was no clear indication of whether he would be detained as part of the military's plan. The military insisted that freedom of the press would be respected, so long as it was in keeping with the national interest, and that it would respond with any means necessary to prevent violence and other attempts to disturb the peace while its plan was carried out. In the announcement, al-Sisi also made it clear that it was the position of the military that they were not intervening directly in the political process, but merely responding to a call from the people to find a resolution to the ongoing political crisis. Al-Sisi outlined how the military had sought to facilitate a negotiated settlement in June 2013 and had met with President Morsi numerous times, blaming his intransigence for their decision to issue the ultimatum and proceed with their roadmap for resolving the crisis. On 4 July 2013, Adli Mansour was officially sworn in as the country's interim leader.
On 6 July 2013, it was reported that Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was slated to be sworn-in as interim prime minister by interim President Adly Mansour. A presidential spokesman said, however, that there were several options for the job and the presidency had to take account of opposition to ElBaradei. The Nour Party, Egypt's second largest Islamist group, opposed ElBaradei and threatened to withdraw its support for the military-backed government. The interim government subsequently backed further away from the appointment of ElBaradei on 7 July 2013, but the Nour Party still withdrew from talks with the new government on 8 July 2013 in protest over the deaths of dozens of protesters outside of a facility belonging to Egypt's Republican Guard, where former President Mohamed Morsi was believed to be held.
On 8 July 2013, interim President Adly Mansour outlined his transition plan for Egypt, which notably required the establishment within 15 days of a panel to amend the constitution drafted under former President Mohamed Morsi. After the panel had drafted its changes, they would be put to a referendum, expected to be organized within 5 months. This would then clear the way for new parliamentary elections within 2 months of that referendum, which at the time it was hoped would be held by early 2014. After a new parliament was elected, an election for a new president could be held. The Muslim Brotherhood immediately rejected the plans, continue to call for President Morsi's reinstatement. The Tamarod protest movement also called Mansour's decree dictatorial and a "setback for the revolution," saying the movement had not been consulted and that the decree gave the interim government far too much power. The Tamarod movement suggested it would seek to submit its own recommendations to President Mansour.
In addition to the announcement of President Mansour's transition plan on 8 July 2013, the interim government also continued to look for a candidate for interim prime minister that would be acceptable to all parties. The major impediment to this continued to be the opposition to proposed candidates from the hard-line Islamist Nour Party. On 9 July 2013, there were reports that Nour might be prepared to accept the appointment of economist Samir Radwan, who the Nour Party felt would fit its requirement for a neutral technocrat. On 9 July 2013, it was announced that the interim government had appointed former finance minister Hazem el-Beblawi as interim Prime Minister and Mohamed ElBaradei as interim Vice President. It was unclear whether or not all members of the the Tamarod movement, most importantly the Nour Party, would accept the appointments. Nour had already expressed its opposition to the appointment of ElBaradei as Prime Minister.
Egyptians have been protesting almost continuously since demonstrations toppled the 30-year reign of Hosni long-time president Mubarak in February of 2011. But activist groups have splintered, alliances have shifted and competing protests across the country left more than 100 dead in July 2013 alone, one of the bloodiest periods, after the Egyptian military toppled President Morsi and put him under house arrest.
Neither side in the Egyptian conflict had shown much taste for reconciliation. Commenting on TV coverage, Rawya Rageh noted that "The rhetoric used by presenters and their guests, particularly on private stations – who Morsi had come at loggerheads with particularly during his last days in office – has gone beyond trying to isolate the Brotherhood and veered into the more serious territory of demonizing and dehumanizing them. Pro-Morsi sit-ins in the eastern and southern part of the capital have been repeatedly described as pools of filth covered in human excrement, and occupied by lice-ridden people with skin disease.... The Muslim Brotherhood’s channel Misr 25 and other TV stations backing Morsi were promptly shut down the day he was removed from office. They, too, had been engaged in a similar campaign of demonizing Morsi’s opposition for months ahead of the June 30 protests."
Egyptian political developments are seen by some as manifestations of what many inside and outside of academia have called the "deep state" - an elite which has manipulated and controlled the political system. The divisions plaguing Egypt often are portrayed as a struggle between those for and against ousted President Mohamed Morsi. But for those on Morsi's side, there appeared to be a far more sinister player on the scene - moving against whatever progress Egypt has seen since the 2011 uprising. The deep state - a concept rooted in the old Ottoman Empire and popularized in recent years in Turkey - pits conservatives against Islamists who would bring change. Even some opposed to both the Mubarak and the Morsi governments saw a deep state triumphant. Morsi was opposed by the judiciary, but also the media, the foreign office, the police force, the military, Al Azhar mosque and the church. And they resisted.
Mohamed Soudan, foreign secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing said, “As soon as the Revolution of 25th of January started, there is a conspiracy against this revolution. There is a deep state. There is corruption. There is counter-revolution started also.” Soudan said this “deep state” aimed to revive everything the protesters on Tahrir Square two years ago tried sweep away. “Now the police state is coming back," he said. "The army state is coming back. The conspiracy of the former regime, Mubarak regime is coming back."
Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour called for the Muslim Brotherhood to join the military-led transition and take part in upcoming votes to decide on a new constitution, parliament, and president. But the Brotherhood refused, insisting that doing so would essentially be giving approval to what it views as a military coup against the government of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected leader. "The entire political process is nothing more than a sham. And participating in it gives it legitimacy," said Gehad El-Haddad, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, in an interview with VOA. It makes little sense, Haddad said, for the Brotherhood to try to win elections as it did for the past two years, if it is does not believe that Egypt's military will allow it to take power again. "There is no guarantee the military will not do this again," he said. "We've already gone through a presidential election, we've gone through parliamentary elections, we've gone through a constitutional referendum."
Background
The Egyptian public is polarized between the secular, leftist and Christian opposition and the more numerous and better organized Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. The Muslim Brotherhood, President Mohamed Morsi's former party, supports the new constitution. Members of Egypt's liberal, secular and Christian opposition, however, fear it will erode civil liberties because it increases the role of Islamic law and does not mention women's rights. Egypt's judiciary, appointed by Mubarak, refused to accept the popularly elected government and has become the active center of opposition to it. Senior judges have angered the Islamists by annulling election laws and acquitting officials who served under the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak.
The greatest threat to domestic stability in Egypt results from popular frustration with the country's economic performance and lack of economic opportunity. Approximately one-fifth of Egypt's 80 million people live below the poverty line, despite a per capita GDP of almost $6,200 [2010 PPP estimate]. Officially, unemployment rates rose from 7.9 percent in 1999/2000 to 9.7 percent in 2010; independent estimates, however, place the real extent of unemployment at somewhere between twelve and twenty-five percent of the labor force. In 2010, the government spent more on infrastructure and public projects, and exports drove GDP growth to more than 5%, but GDP growth in 2011 is unlikely to bounce back to pre-global financial recession levels, when it stood at 7%. Despite the relatively high levels of economic growth over the past few years, living conditions for the average Egyptian remain poor.
The declared state of emergency [repealed on 31 May 2012] had been in place since 1981. The state of emergency allowed internal security services to renew periods of "administrative detention" indefinitely. Egyptian human rights organizations estimated in 2007 that 4,000 to 5,000 people remained in prolonged detention without charge under the law, though Minister of Interior Habib Al Adly stated that the total number of political prisoners and detainees does not exceed 1,800. There were varied and conflicting estimates of the number of "extraordinary detainees" (citizens held by the government, often without trial, for alleged political crimes). In 2006, credible domestic and international NGOs estimated that there were between 6,000 and 10,000 such detainees in addition to the prisoners in the ordinary criminal justice system. The government held detainees, including many MB activists, for several weeks to several months or longer, and did not permit international humanitarian organizations access to political prisoners.
In November 2011 the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) took many by surprise when it won 47 percent of seats in Egypt’s lower house of parliament. By early 2012 Muslim Brotherhood politicians dominated both houses of parliament, after initially pledging to contest a minority of seats, and the prospect of an executive branch under the group's control raised fears that the country had ousted one authoritarian government only to replace it with another.
Since the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory in Egypt’s first democratic elections in six decades, the once-banned Islamist group has been faced with the task of cleaning up the corruption and reversing the political repression that flourished under Mubarak. Progress has been slow, at best.
The country’s transition to democracy continued to be beset by political turmoil, as well as the breakdown of law and order and established social norms. This breakdown had the largest effect on society’s most vulnerable elements, including women and minorities, who often became the target of violent attacks. The most significant human rights problems during the year were: a) threats to women’s rights, with an increasingly challenging environment in which women faced assaults and sexual harassment and often were unable to assemble peacefully without male protection; b) failure to prosecute perpetrators of violence against religious minorities and in some cases to protect minorities from violence; and c) threats to freedom of speech, press, and association, as security forces assaulted, abused, and arrested journalists who sought to cover clashes between the military and protesters while the SCAF was in power. Courts convicted persons charged in private lawsuits with “insulting” religions, government figures, and the Prophet Muhammad, and “harming national unity.” A restrictive nongovernmental organization (NGO) law continued to hinder freedom of association.
The lower house that was elected at the end of 2011 was dissolved in mid-2012 after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that the election of one third of its seats had been invalid because they should have been reserved for independents without overt party affiliation. The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and ultra-conservative Salafi parties dominate the upper house; two-thirds of its seats were elected in early 2012, on a very low turnout, and the remaining one third of its members were appointed by Morsi, who sought to lessen the Islamist bias by selecting several notable liberals and Christians.
On 24 June 2012 Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was declared the winner of Egypt's presidential run-off. Egypt's election commission announced that Morsi won nearly 52 percent of the vote, beating former prime minister and Mubarak-era official Ahmed Shafiq. The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/egypt/politics.htm