Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces pledged on Tuesday that the next presidential election would be a model of democracy, fairness and transparency. Tantawi's statements came in a message sent to Ahmed Fahmy, the newly-elected speaker of the Shura Council, which held its first session Tuesday. Tantawi also congratulated the council on holding its first session after fair elections through which voters expressed their opinion freely. “The election was a manifestation of the promise we made since assuming responsibility for the country that there would not be a substitute for the legitimacy accepted by the people,” Tantawi wrote. “And here we are handing over power to the Parliament that reflects the hopes and aspirations of the Egyptian people. “We have gone through a difficult transitional phase of enormous challenges, but the state stood on one pillar, namely the great army of Egypt that protected the revolution and adopted all its demands. “The armed forces were aware of attempts to sow discord among the people over its role in the restoration of the state institutions. Therefore, our aim at the transitional phase was to rebuild the state's legislative institutions and prepare for a new constitution and presidential election,” he said in the message. "Here we are, poised to complete the construction of a modern state by selecting the members of the constituent assembly that will write the new constitution and hold the presidential elections,” he concluded. Some legal experts and MPs expressed concern over conducting the presidential elections under the controversial Article 28 in the Constitutional Declaration which grants the committee supervising the presidential election the ability to issue unchallengeable decisions. MP Abul Ezz al-Hariry said in a People's Assembly session on Monday, “If the presidential election is held under Article 28, then the election of Egypt's next president will be void, as preventing the challenge of any administrative decision is a violation of human rights and because the article which revokes litigation is invalid.”
