Representatives of political forces have recently lobbied hard to hold presidential elections ahead of parliamentary polls. Sameh Ashour, chairman of the Lawyers Syndicate and head of the Arab Nasserist party, said he intends to propose amending Egypt's 2012 constitution to state that presidential elections be held first, Gamal Essam El-Din reports. Ashour, who joined the 50-member committee entrusted with drafting Egypt's new constitution, told parliamentary correspondents that he will do his best to gather support among the committee's members in favour of organising presidential elections ahead of parliamentary polls. Ashour, who was elected chairman of the National Dialogue sub-committee on Tuesday, said, “If we want Egypt to recover political stability as soon as possible, it will be important to organise presidential elections first.” Ashour's initiative was immediately supported by the Tamarod (Rebel) movement which spearheaded the revolution against the former regime of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 30 June. “The movement is a strong advocate of changing the post-30 June roadmap so that presidential elections be held ahead of parliamentary polls,” Mahmoud Badr, Tamarod founder, said. The Tamarod website asserted on Sunday that “a large number of representatives of political forces in the 50-member constitutional drafting committee believes that the promulgation of Egypt's new constitution should be followed by presidential elections first and then parliamentary polls.” The website said “electing a new president for Egypt as soon as possible will help it recover stability and fend off foreign pressure from the US and European Union which threatened to cut off aid unless the interim government moves quickly to a fully democratic rule.” To achieve this objective, the website statement indicated, “political forces will make sure that the new constitution clearly states that presidential elections are held first.” The Tamarod movement said “it does not have objections that Minister of Defence and military Commander-in-Chief General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi run for the upcoming presidential election.” The movement's founder Badr emphasised in a television interview that “by no means do we have any reservations that a military figure like Al-Sisi run for the upcoming presidential election.” Badr argued that “if the political and the security situation in Egypt remained unstable, we will find it highly appropriate to support Al-Sisi to be the new president of Egypt.” Joining the fray, Hamdeen Sabahi, chairman of the leftist Popular Current and a former presidential candidate, also strongly favoured staging presidential elections first. “This reflects the demands and aspirations of young men and women who turned out in the millions on 30 June to reject the religious tyranny of the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Sabahi. Sabahi said on 7 September that he and Ahmed Al-Meslemani, the media adviser of interim President Adli Mansour, probed the possibility of holding presidential elections first. Sabahi stressed that the next president of Egypt must be a civilian rather a military man. “Besides,” he added, “General Al-Sisi vowed that he would not run in the upcoming presidential elections and I think that he will honour this vow.” The National Salvation Front (NSF), which masterminded the ousting Morsi from office, said it was thinking of nominating Sabahi in the presidential elections. The NSF's prominent member and political analyst Wahid Abdel-Meguid said, “Sabahi has a good chance of winning the new presidential election because he truly reflects the aspirations of the two revolutions of 25 January and 30 June.” Meanwhile, Ahmed Shafik, who was runner-up to Morsi in last year's presidential vote, indicated that he would run in the next presidential election if Al-Sisi abstained from entering the race. “If Al-Sisi refuses to join the race, I would be ready to run for president again,” said Shafik, a former commander of Egypt's air force and a prime minister in 2011. The calls for presidential elections first, however, did not go down well with other political Islam forces. The ultra-conservative Salafist Nour Party indicated that “all political forces must abide by implementing the political roadmap announced on 3 July and the constitutional declaration issued on 8 July.” “The two are clear-cut in stating that parliamentary polls should be held first,” said chairman of the Nour Party Younis Makhioun, also arguing that “no single force should be allowed to impose its agenda on the entire nation.” Makhioun contended that “electing a president first will affect the outcome of parliamentary elections.” “We believe that once a president is elected, he would move to manipulate parliamentary elections in favour of his political faction,” said Makhioun. According to a statement issued by the Armed Forces on 3 July, the post-30 June political roadmap includes suspending the 2012 constitution, appointing the chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court as interim president, and holding early presidential elections. This timetable, however, goes against the 8 July constitutional declaration whose Article 30 states that “once a new constitution is approved in a national referendum, the interim president would call for parliamentary polls to be held within 15 days, and once a new parliament is formed, this has to be followed by presidential elections.” Tamarod and Ashour believe that Article 30 could be easily changed to state that presidential elections will be held once a new constitution is passed in a public referendum. “A new article will also be added to the new constitution to clearly state that presidential elections be held ahead of parliamentary polls,” said Tamarod.
