Egypt's new cabinet takes oath
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Xinhua, December 8, 2011
Egypt's new cabinet led by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri was sworn in on Wednesday before Egyptian military chief Hussein Tantawi.
New members of the cabinet included Interior Minister Mohamed Youssef, Information Minister Ahmed Anis, Minister of Justice Abdel Abdel-Hamid Abullah, Finance Minister Momtaz el-Saeida and state ministers for antiquities, scientific research and environment.
The change of interior and information ministers had been a key demand of recent protests. The new interior minister was a former security chief of Giza governorate. The new information minister was chairman of the Egyptian satellite company NileSat.
Interior Minister Youssef said he would exert strenuous efforts to restructure police forces to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people and make it a top priority to restore security and stability in Egypt's streets, the official agency MENA reported.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Ahmed Anis pledged reforms in accordance with people's demands.
The ministers of foreign affairs, planning and international cooperation, tourism, military production, local development, communications, irrigation, religious affairs retained their posts.
On Nov. 25, 78-year-old Ganzouri was officially tasked to form a national salvation government by the military rulers after former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet resigned under the pressure of consecutive days of protests.
As an economist, Ganzouri was the prime minister from 1996 to 1999 during the Mubarak regime and was one of the major designers of the country's economic reforms from the early 1990s.
Tantawi called on the new government to restore security so as to push forward the wheel of production and the return of the armed forces to their main responsibility of protecting their homeland and its sovereignty, MENA reported.
The military chief also entrusted the national salvation government with advancing the process of democratization, preparing a new constitution and organizing the presidential elections.
He called for full support for young people who run small and medium-sized projects, and stressed the necessity of combating price hikes and improving the living standards of the families in need.
He also called for a financial reform program to increase state resources and the modernization of the media.
According to a decree issued by Tantawi's military council on Wednesday, the prime minister was granted all the powers of a state president except judiciary power and the power to command armed forces.
The decree will be published by the official newspaper and become a law starting from the publishing date.
The end to the military rule was among the most important demands of the young people during the mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square from Nov. 19 to Nov. 25. Clashes during the protests left at least 42 dead and more than 3,000 injured.
Despite the fragile stability, Egypt held the first stage of the People's Assembly (lower house of the parliament) polls on Nov. 28 and 29 as planned, with a run-off on Monday and Tuesday. The voting was peaceful and orderly on the whole with a record high turnout.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party won 36 out of 56 individual seats in the first stage of the parliamentary elections, the party claimed on its website on Wednesday.
Initial results showed Islamic forces got more than 60 percent of the votes. The Freedom and Justice Party captured 36.6 percent of the 9.73 million valid votes, followed by the ultra- conservative Salafist Nour Party, which garnered 24.4 percent of the votes, in the first round.
The 508-seat People's Assembly has 498 seats up for grabs and the other 10 are to be appointed by the president of the country. Some 50 parties and more than 6,000 independent candidates have contested the polls. The vote will be held in three stages, each with a run-off one week after the first round. The final results will be announced by Jan. 13.
The Shura Council (upper house of the parliament) polls will begin in late January and end in early March, also in three stages.
Egypt's parliament was dissolved shortly after the fall of ex- president Hosni Mubarak in February amid anti-government protests.
The presidential vote will be held before June 30 next year.
