A week of bloody clashes has cast a shadow over Egypt's transition towards democracy, writes Gamal Essam El-Din The week long confrontation between the army and security forces guarding the Cabinet Office and People's Assembly and protesters has left Egypt in a deepening political crisis. Activists opposed to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) have called for presidential elections to be brought forward. They have now been joined by a number of newly-elected members of the People's Assembly. MPs such as Amr Hamzawy and chairman of the Adl (Justice) Party Mustafa El-Naggar now insist that presidential elections must be held before the Shura Council poll and the drafting of a new constitution. The proposal has won the support of youth revolutionary movements. It is, however, being ignored by SCAF. A meeting between military leaders and their newly-appointed 30-member advisory council on 20 December ended with a statement reiterating their commitment to a transition timetable that sees SCAF remaining in power until June 2012. The advisory council includes several prominent public figures, including Amr Moussa, former secretary-general of the Arab League, and Mohamed Selim El-Awwa, a respected Islamic scholar. Both are potential presidential candidates. Moussa told state TV on 20 December that "it is okay for presidential elections to be held ahead of the Shura Council elections and the drafting of the constitution but this proposal is tenable only if it is supported by all political forces." Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) have already rejected the proposal. FJP chairman Mohamed Mursi says the party remains determined that a new constitution be drafted ahead of the presidential poll. Most -- if not all -- Islamist forces believe that pressing for earlier presidential elections is a liberal ploy to deprive an Islamist-dominated parliament from having the upper hand in drafting the constitution. "The Muslim Brotherhood has said it will not field a presidential candidate but it fears that a secular president will join forces with liberals to prevent Islamist parliamentarians from drafting the constitution they want," says Ammar Ali Hassan, a political researcher at the Middle East News Agency (MENA). Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, newly-elected to represent his Alexandrian district in the People's Assembly who, though he stood as an independent is expected to receive FJP backing as speaker of the People's Assembly, opposes any tweaking of the existing timetable. "I think we have a political roadmap that has a consensus of support and presidential elections should be held at the very end, after the parliamentary elections and the drafting of the constitution," says El-Khodeiri, who met with Marc Sievers, deputy chief of the US embassy in Egypt, on 19 December. Following the meeting both men stressed that the political process must move forward. The US State Department has praised the high turnout in Egypt's parliamentary elections, with spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saying "conclusion of the elections is the only correct road for moving Egypt forward." Fears are growing, however, that unless a president is elected soon the relationship between SCAF and revolutionary forces can only deteriorate further. Ammar Ali Hassan believes that there are no guarantees this week's bloody clashes will not be repeated. "Most of the revolutionary movements believe SCAF's leaders remain loyal to former president Hosni Mubarak. There is a compete lack of trust and for these young revolutionary movements it has been compounded by the fact that it is now clear Islamists will dominate the coming parliament," says Hassan. "This has left them feeling the gains of their revolution are being reaped by others and that they will have no role in the coming period. Their response has been to escalate direct action as a way of insuring they are not ignored." Some analysts are now arguing that three forces are competing for power in Egypt: the military SCAF, which resorted to an excessive use of force in recent days, the Islamists -- especially the Muslim Brotherhood -- who look set to sweep the polls, and the revolutionary youth who have been fighting an increasingly bloody battle against the army and security forces. Many ordinary Egyptians appear to believe that the army must use an iron fist in restoring order on the Egyptian street. Interviewed on state-owned and even private television channels antagonistic to SCAF, citizens have shown hostility to revolutionary forces, especially the 6 April Movement, repeating that they are anarchists and Western agents determined to cause chaos. Sohair Ahmed, a resident of Hussein Hegazi Street which is close to the Cabinet headquarters, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "what the private press and television channels claim, that the protesters are peaceful, is a big media lie." "These are gangs of thugs and hooligans armed with all kinds of weapons, knives and Molotovs," says Ahmed. "I saw them on Saturday attacking police forces, looting the parliament building and shouting insults against the generals." An official source said yesterday that security and intelligence sources had uncovered a conspiracy aimed at plunging Egypt into civil war. "The conspiracy included egging on revolutionary youth who felt disappointed by the election results to torch buildings, spread chaos and launch a civil war on 25 January 2012," the anniversary of the revolution, claimed MENA. A team from Misr Insurance Company claims that "so-called protesters looted the offices of a number of parliamentary committees, the office of the minister of parliamentary affairs and the People's Assembly medical unit". "They stole computers, medical equipment and torched furniture." Misr Insurance Company estimates the damage to the People's Assembly at between LE5-10 million. (see pp.2-7)
