Mursi to pick woman, Christian as his deputies

Cairo: Mohammad Mursi’s first appointments as president-elect of Egypt will be a woman and a Coptic Christian, his spokesman has told the Guardian, as he moves to allay fears of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Samah Al Essawy said that although the names of the two choices had not been finalised, they would be Mursi’s two vice-presidents.

When the appointments go through, they will constitute the first time in Egypt’s history that either a woman or a Coptic Christian has occupied such an elevated position in the executive branch.

The Muslim Brotherhood is at pains to calm fears of what an Islamist president might mean for Egypt and the region at large. Appointing both a woman and a Coptic Christian is an attempt at a show of unity, and a rule by consensus.

Al Essawy also said that Mursi had no objection to swearing the presidential oath in front of the supreme constitutional court (SCC), widely seen as a controversial move after the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood-majority parliament by that very court a day before the run-off elections earlier this month. But, “that does not mean he [Mursi] acknowledges the dissolution of parliament”, said Al Essawy, a member of Mursi’s former party, Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

Mursi filled his second day as president-elect with meeting a number of state officials, including the current interior minister, in an attempt to build bridges with a police force that was the initial spark of the January 25, 2011 revolt leading to the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Mursi also met the head of Al Azhar, Egypt’s highest religious institution.

The president-elect continues to deliberate with the military and other political forces over the formation of his cabinet, which is expected to be led by an independent national figure and would not have an FJP majority.

In a populist move, Mursi’s camp has announced that 750,000 government employees hired on temporary contracts their status remaining that way for years would be handed permanent contracts from the beginning of July. This has been a long-standing complaint of government workers, including ambulance service staff who have been intermittently protesting over the past year.

One of Mursi’s first directives was to ban the tradition of hanging presidential portraits in all government buildings.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd