CAIRO: At a press conference on Thursday, Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) strongly defended its record in dealing with protests and its steps to ensure a transition to civilian rule. General Hamdy Shahin affirmed that the elections would proceed on time. Also at the press conference, the head of the Higher Electoral Committee affirmed that all arrangements were in place for the elections. Abdel Moezz Ibrahim, the head of the Higher Electoral Committee, denied claims that 100 judges had refused to take part in supervising the elections, saying that only 35 had excused themselves due to illness. Ibrahim said that external monitoring of the elections was unnecessary. The Egyptians, he said, were of age and capable of monitoring their own affairs. Ibrahim also said that the results of the elections for individual seats would be announced the day after the elections, while the list results would be announced after the completion of the third phase of voting. General Mukhtar Al-Molla said that decades of corruption could not be erased in a month. He insisted on SCAF's commitment to human rights, which he said were inviolable in all cases. The armed forces were not making any exceptions to them. Molla said that the army had no desire to remain in power, a position which he said was a burden rather than a blessing. But if they withdrew immediately, he said, it would be a betrayal of the people. Molla called for people to concentrate on the elections rather than on sloganizing and calling for “million-man” demonstrations. General Hamdi Shahin said that SCAF had done as much as possible to facilitate the formation of new political parties, and the number of parties had grown from 23 to 55, which he described as a sign of democracy. But Shahin also claimed that the political parties often served only their own individual interests, whereas the army was concerned with the nation's interests as a whole. Molla defended the army's role in the ongoing protests in Cairo, saying that those present in Tahrir did not represent Egypt, but their point of view had to be respected. Most of the demands of the demonstrators were reasonable, he said, and SCAF was working to implement them. He claimed that the protesters who were trying to reach the Interior Ministry building were attempting to provoke the army into using live fire, “but we won't do that.” The police too, Molla said, were not attacking anyone, but only defending themselves. They were using imported gas in accordance with protocol. No one, Molla said, was being tried before military courts on matters of conscience. BM
