CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said calls to hand over power to parliament are premature. In the wake of this week's deadly crackdown on protesters, a number of politicians and activists had called for handing over power to a civilian government in January. They suggested that the military council hand over authority to either the parliament or an elected president by January or February 2012. The FJP, which is in the lead at the polls during the current parliamentary elections, said that such calls are not compatible with the current Constitutional Declaration, and so could create another confrontation with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The party slammed the idea of holding the presidential elections on Jan. 25, saying the suggestion won't solve the current crisis. More than 14 protesters have been killed since Dec. 16 when the military violently dispersed a three-week-long sit-in outside cabinet. Amnesty International said at least 84 have been killed in similar security crackdowns since October. The FJP said those who are making these suggestions are “acting with exemplary short-sightedness” by failing to see the scenario put forth by the Constitutional Declaration that stipulates election members for both houses of parliament and drafting a new constitution before finally holding presidential elections. Mohamed Saad El-Katatny, the party's Secretary General, said that the party maintained the same position of holding presidential elections before June 30. Under pressure from protesters in November, SCAF said it would hand over power by July 2012, the first clear deadline the council has made since it took over power last February. El-Katatny said that the FJP is committed to the timeline that was agreed upon by political parties with the SCAF, adding that any deviation from this timeline will lead to unnecessary chaos. As violence escalated with protesters, a group of recently-elected MPs said they “hold the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces fully responsible for the killing and brutal violence used against youth, men and women in clashes over the past few days.” The MPs and politicians announced a sit-in at the High Court, which was later moved to the Journalists Syndicate and later to Tahrir Square, leading FJP participants to withdraw. “We started to see that it has become different. We can't spend the night in Tahrir. It's the equivalent of asking people to stage a sit-in which as FJP we don't agree with in the meantime,” said FJP candidate Mohamed El-Beltagy, elected MP in Shoubra. He added that FJP MPs participated in a symbolic political sit-in to hold those who killed people accountable, but they do not want to incite people to more chaos. “We filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General against Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, Central Security Forces Chief General Emad El-Wakil, head of Military Police General Hamdy Badeen and Head of the Central Military Zone General Hassan El-Ruweiny, for being responsible for the violence. We just want them to be held accountable for their actions,” added Beltagy. In the official statement, the FJP blamed international, regional and domestic stakeholders who would do their best to suppress the Egyptian revolution by instigating violence in consecutive events including the clashes of Imbaba, Balloon Theater, Maspero, Mohamed Mahmoud Street and the ministerial Cabinet. The party called upon SCAF to identify the “invisible hands” that it had repeatedly blamed for disrupting Egypt's security.
