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El-Awa says SCAF has to finish interim tenure as planned Potential presidential candidate Mohamed Selim El-Awa thinks Egypt's military rulers cannot abruptly leave power as revolutionary political forces have been demanding
Presidential hopeful Mohamed Selim El-Awa believes the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) will step back from its role as a ruling body on time as per the planned timeframe. During a conference he attended with professors and students of Port Said University, El-Awa underlined that implementation of the roadmap set by military rulers is of the utmost importance. “The order of the roadmap's steps is elections of for People's Assembly (the lower house of the parliament), then elections for the Shura Council [the upper legislative house], then the announcement of the committee responsible for drafting the constitution, and finally presidential elections,” he said. “We need to stick to that plan within the proposed timeframe. I am convinced SCAF will stick to its end of the deal.” The ruling military council has said it will hand over power to a civilian administration by the end of June 2012. El-Awa's statements came in the wake of widespread calls to bring forward the presidential elections to 25 January, when a new wave of the popular uprising is expected to be triggered. Others also suggest that the speaker-elect of the People's Assembly temporarily assume the role of president. Both suggestions were made by revolutionary political forces, including the Revolution Youth Coalition,in order to stop this month's bloody clashes between protesters and army forces, and also to push towards the transition to full-scale democracy directly. A crackdown from military troops on a sit-in staged by protesters at the Cabinet headquarters prompted violent confrontations between both sides, with more anti-SCAF protesters joining the battle. Several shocking human rights violations at the hands of military personnel over the past few days were documented in videos and photographs that were broadly circulated on the internet, causing both local and international criticism of soldiers' treatment of Egyptian citizens. At least 14 were killed and several hundred injured during the turmoil that recently ended but could re-emerge at any moment. The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, earlier announced its intention of sticking to SCAF's roadmap as well.
