CAIRO: Protesters for the past week in Egypt have battled the police, the military and the political meanderings of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), who on February 12 took over rule of the country after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising. Then, the SCAF promised to hold elections within 6 months and push the country toward democratic reformation. Instead, 10 months on from February, elections are yet to occur – although they are scheduled to begin on Monday – and scores of Egyptians have been killed by both the police and the military. But, it all good have been different. Farouk Sultan should have been president. Sultan is was the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, and according to Article 84 of the Egyptian constitution, if parliament is dissolved and the presidency is made vacant, which it was on February 11 when Mubarak took leave after three decades, the head of state goes to the President of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Under the constitution, Sultan was constitutionally required to “take over the Presidency.” The stipulation is that he woudl not have been able to nominate himself for the top job in the next round of elections. When would those elections take place? According to the constitution, which the military has, for all intents and purpsoses, made null and void, “The President of the Republic shall be chosen within a maximum period of sixty days from the date of the vacancy of the Presidential office.” Sultan would have been president for two months, in charge of elections and overseeing the transition period. Instead, he is nowhere to be found and the country's military has an iron grip on the politics and future of Egypt. In essence, the military has usurped power through what may be seen in the near future as a military coup and destroyed the revolution. Elections are to happen, but with the SCAF using extra-constitutional means to see an Egypt where they maintain power, it is depressing that Sultan's name was not brought up earlier. Think of what could have happened had the judge become president. We would not be wondering right now over the future of Egypt. There would be a parliament and president in place and the mobilization of the Islamist groups last summer would never been able to have manifested such powerfully had they not been given time, and more time, to do just that. On Friday night, protesters in Tahrir attempted to form a secondary government to the one that sees SCAF in full power, nominating a council of leaders with Mohamed ElBaradei as president. All men, of course. Political leader Amr Hamzawy has been one of the few leaders in the current period to voice the fact that Sultan should have taken power, that the judiciary was responsible, not the military, for the future of the Egyptian state and government. In many ways, the current struggle between the military and the people could have been avoided if the constitution the military claims to hold dear and use when it suits them was actually followed. Instead, 10 months on from the uprising in January and the mini-uprising this past week, Egypt is facing a military dictatorship as horrible and destructive as the previous regime. So much for a constitution. BM
