Cairo: A cabinet reshuffle, which saw nine ministers replaced in the Egyptian government on Tuesday, has further tightened the Muslim Brotherhood’s hold.
Two officials in the Brotherhood, to which President Mohammad Mursi belongs, have been given two key ministries. Yehia Hamed, the spokesman for Mursi’s 2012 presidential campaign, has been named minister of investment. Amr Deraj, a senior official in the group, has become the minister of planning and international cooperation. Ministers of information, manpower, youth, waqfs [religious endowments] and local developments are also from the Brotherhood.
The secular-minded accuses Mursi of acting to tighten the Brotherhood’s hold on state institutions, a claim denied by both the Islamist president and his group.
The opposition Tuesday criticised the appointment of Hatem Begato, a judge at the Supreme Constitutional Court, as minister of parliamentary affairs. “Begato was the spokesman for the Presidential Election Commission that declared Mursi’s win,” Amani Al Khyat, an official in the main opposition National Salvation Front, said. There have been unverified claims that the elections were rigged in favour of Mursi.
Begato’s appointment comes less than a week before the top court starts hearings on the legality of the Shura Council, which is Egypt’s temporary legislature, Al Khyat told the independent newspaper Al Youm Al Saba.
Also ministers of justice, culture, antiquities, oil, finance and agriculture were replaced.
However, the reshuffle has kept ministers of the interior, information and local development unchanged despite repeated calls by the opposition to replace them ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary vote. The opposition accuses them of promoting the Brotherhood’s interests.
On Monday, Prime Minister Hesham Qandil said that 11 ministers would be replaced. Only nine were eventually replaced. “After a final review with President Mursi, we agreed to leave two of the 11 ministers in their posts because they have files that need to be completed,” Qandil said following a swearing-in on Tuesday.
The reshuffle was the third in the Qandil government since it took office in August last year.
