Task cut out for new Egypt president

Egypt's interim military government is wrong in seeking to redefine the role of the president a few days before the first round of presidential elections and a few weeks before the final run off decides who will be the nation's first freely elected president. There is a danger that this deliberate confusion may devalue the elections and it certainly devalues the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), whose blatant attempts at manipulation and self-preservation are doing the Egyptian armed forces no good at all.

It is true that the Constituent Assembly collapsed in a dispute over its membership being dominated by one Islamist party. So consequently it failed to draft a new constitution. This failure means that the incoming president will work according to the role that was defined around presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, and carry vast powers.

Scaf will love to see the presidential powers reduced and has tried to pre-empt a new president by striking ahead of the elections. The new president will face a tough position, as he will have to deal with a much more assertive parliament — which has a clear democratic mandate — and the interim military authorities, who will want to preserve their privileges.

A hint of how the parliament will line up in this future fight was given by the parties' comments on the Scaf move: the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said it opposed the move; the Salafist Nour Party supported Scaf's decision, while the liberal Wafd Party dodged the issue.

Egypt needs all these parties to work together to build a new, inclusive constitution, which should include an important security and military role for the armed forces and which excludes all political responsibility. The parties should be clear that Scaf should not be a participant in that dialogue.