Egypt Readies for Presidential Elections

04/01/11

Several people have announced their plans to campaign for president, including Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian law scholar and diplomat who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, jointly, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Amr Moussa, Egyptian diplomat and Secretary-General of the Arab League, and Hamdeen Sabahi, founder of the al-Karama party. However, the Muslim Brotherhood has not presented a candidate for nomination.

10 days ago, by popular vote, Egyptian voters approved a series of constitutional amendments. An interim constitution, comprised of 62 articles, will replace the one discontinued after Mubarak's regime fell on February 11^th, after 18 days of, at times, violent clashes.

According to the same March 30_^th google.com article, the interim constitution mandates the creation of a committee to be comprised of ''100 legal experts, academics, politicians and professionals''. These individuals will be chosen by the newly elected parliament; parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in September. The committee will then draft a new constitution, to be ''approved by a referendum.''

In spite of the many demands made by groups instigating the uprising, half of the seats in the new parliament will be allotted for, per the same March 30^th google.com article, ''farmers and workers'' – a carryover from Egypt's socialist past. Article 2 of the interim constitution identifies Islam as the religion of the state, and the basis for legislation is Islamic Sharia law.

In the March 30^th google.com article, ''Egypt to elect new president by November'', Mamduh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was quoted as saying: ''When the parliament is elected, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will hand over the legislative power. Then, when the president is elected, it will hand over the rest of the powers to him.''

The Egyptian revolution followed a popular uprising that began on January 25, 2011. Most participants followed a peaceful campaign of civil resistance, which included demonstrations, marches, and labor strikes.

Protesters' demands centered on many legal and political issues, including police brutality, the absence of free elections as well as freedom of speech, and widespread corruption. A major demand was to lift state of emergency laws. The country had been under a state of emergency since 1981, when Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by Islamist gunmen at a military parade. The state of emergency gave police broad powers of arrest and suspended constitutional rights.

Over the course of the revolution, there were nearly 400 deaths, and nearly 6,000 people were injured.