CAIRO - The newly elected Shura Council (the upper house of the Egyptian Parliament) held its maiden session after its Islamist members elected Dr. Ahmed Fahmi as a new chairman. Dr. Fahmi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was elected by 180 out of the 270-member Council, said Mohamed Hassan el-Mileegi, the oldest member. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took power after Hosni Mubarak was unseated by a popular uprising a year ago, has yet to appoint the remaining 90 members. Dr Fahmi's election comes less than a week after a contested general election that saw the FJP scoring an outright majority after having emerged as the top party in the earlier lower house vote. Turnout was low for the Council's two-round poll which began on January 29 and ended last Tuesday. The FJP had won 107 seats, or 59 per cent of the upper house's 270 seats. Another Islamist party, the Salafist Al-Nour, won 46 seats. Among secularist and liberal parties, Al-Wafd Party won 19 seats and the Egyptian Bloc seven. An independent candidate took one seat. The powers of the council are limited and it cannot block legislation in the lower house. However, its members must be consulted before lower house members pass any bill. The SCAF chairman, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, has called on the People's Assembly and Shura Council to hold a joint session next Saturday to form a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution to replace the old one that was suspended after the January 25 Revolution. The new constitution is the centrepiece of efforts to set the country on a new democratic path. Liberals fear that sweeping gains by Islamists in elections will put faith-based parties in the driving seat and lead to more religious strictures. The panel will be formed before the multi-candidate presidential election, which will be held in late June. Addressing the session, Fahmi read out a message from Field Marshal Tantawi in which he wrote that the SCAF was 'fully committed' to hold fair and transparent presidential vote in which all the Egyptians would be invited to participate. "The army is committed to transforming Egypt into a democracy," Field Marshal Tantawi said in his message. "The army is committed to pressing ahead with turning Egypt into a modern civilian state. We are moving forward on the path to entrenching democracy that upholds freedoms and the rights of citizens through free and fair elections," he added. Field Marshal Tantawi, according to Fahmi, wrote that the decisive period in the people's history requires concerted efforts from all Egyptians to confront the urgent challenges facing the nation that cannot be dealt with by hesitation or semi-solutions. In his message, Fahmi continued, the SCAF chairman pledged to protect civic freedoms and transfer power to a civilian rule by the end of June as scheduled. The nominating period for presidential candidates will starts on March 10 and lasts four weeks. The balloting will take place over one or two days. The announcement of the winner — even from a potential run-off — would be declared by the end of June. So, far, several leading figures already have expressed an interest in running for president. Ex-Arab League chief Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mubarak and a popular figure, has already begun campaigning, as has Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force pilot who served as prime minister at the height of the anti-Mubarak protests. Mohamed Selim el-Awa, a lawyer who has written a book on the concept of Islam and governance, is also expected to submit his nomination. Among Egypt's Islamists, there is Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a longtime liberal within the Muslim Brotherhood who has gained support among the pro-revolution crowd. He was expelled from the group because he declared his intention to run for president after the Brotherhood said it would not field a candidate. There is also Hazem Abu Ismail, who draws his core support from the ultraconservative Salafists, who form the second largest bloc in parliament after the Brotherhood. The most notable absence from the field is Nobel laureate and former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei. He withdrew from the race last month. According to a referendum supported on March 19 last year by a majority of Egyptian voters, eligible candidates must not have held dual nationality, must not be married to a foreigner and must be at least 40 years old. Egyptian-born candidates will also need 30,000 signatures or the backing of at least 30 lawmakers. The military decreed the results as law. Parliament said Sunday that it would review all of the laws decreed by the military council. Some lawmakers were angered that the presidential law was issued just days before the new parliament convened for the first time last month. Last month, a panel charged with advising the military council had proposed to hold the landmark elections on May 16, a month earlier than the June deadline set by the SCAF.
