CAIRO, Egypt — The new Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi moved first thing Monday morning into the office once occupied by his ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak and started work on forming a government even before he had a clear picture of what he could do after the ruling military stripped most of the major powers from his post.
The country breathed a sigh of relief that at least the question of who won the presidential runoff had been resolved Sunday after the first free and fair elections in Egypt’s modern history.
People returned to work a day after a panic that sent many home early for fear that violence might break out when the winner was announced. Traffic was flowing again through Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the birthplace of last year’s uprising and a major intersection that had been blocked for nearly a week by Morsi supporters protesting against the military’s power grab.
Egypt’s benchmark stock index closed with record gains of 7.5 percent in a sign of optimism after a president was named. And newspapers were brimming with upbeat headlines after a week of rumors and scaremongering. “Morsi president on orders from the people: The revolution reaches the presidential palace,” said a banner headline in independent daily Al-Shorouk.
“His priority is the stability on the political scene,” said Yasser Ali, a spokesman for Morsi who said the president was in his office to consult on forming a government and choosing his team.
Morsi, from the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood group, is the first Islamist president of Egypt. He defeated Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, in a tight race that polarized the nation.
Now he faces a daunting struggle for power with the still-dominant military rulers who took over after Mubarak’s ouster in the uprising.
The 60-year-old, U.S.-trained engineer takes office knowing little about his authorities and what he can do to resolve security and economic crises and meet the high expectations for the country’s first popularly elected leader.
The contours were emerging of a backroom deal between the military and the Brotherhood that led to the ruling military council blessing Morsi as president. One mediator said negotiations are still under way to hammer out political understandings.
State TV showed footage of Morsi meeting Monday with the ruling military council headed by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who was Mubarak’s defense minister for 20 years. The TV quoted Tantawi as saying the military will “stand by the elected, legitimate president and will cooperate with him for the stability of the country.”
Morsi also met with the military-backed Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, who resigned Monday and was asked to head a caretaker government until Morsi nominates a new one.
Emad Abdel-Ghaffour, the head of the ultraconservative Islamist party Al-Nour, said in the week between the June 16-17 presidential runoff and the announcement of the winner Sunday, many politicians tried to mediate between the Islamists and the generals to defuse a political crisis.
“There was an easing” of tension when the elections results were released, he said. But discussions were still under way to clarify the authorities of the president and the military. And one of the immediate sticking points is the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament by a court order, days before the presidential runoff.
As polls closed on June 17, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced constitutional amendments that shocked the Brotherhood and many other political activists who took part in the uprising 16 months ago.
The ruling generals gave themselves sweeping powers that undercut the authority of the president. That followed a government decision that granted military police broad powers to detain civilians. The military council, which had promised to transfer power to an elected leader by next Sunday, said the moves were designed to fill a power vacuum and ensure that the president doesn’t monopolize decision making until a new constitution is drafted.
Two days before the runoff, a court packed with judges appointed by the Mubarak regime also dissolved the country’s first freely elected parliament. The military council followed by declaring itself in charge of legislating.
Closed meetings between Brotherhood members and the ruling generals, as well as mediation from different groups, including pro-democracy leader Mohammed ElBaradei, aimed at easing the crisis and defusing a political stalemate.
Brotherhood members said the election results, delayed for four days, were held up by authorities as a bargaining chip to reassure the generals in the face of mounting Brotherhood opposition to the military’s tightening grip and the group’s rise to power.
Former presidents were sworn in by the parliament. But with the parliament dissolved, it was not clear where Morsi will be sworn in. Authorities say he could be sworn before the country’s highest court, but his supporters are pressing for the parliament to be reinstated, arguing that the court decision only disputed a third of the house’s seats.
Abdel-Ghaffour said discussions with the generals centered on the Brotherhood’s argument that only the disputed third of the parliament be dissolved because it was that part that was elected on the basis of articles deemed unconstitutional. Independent and party members competed for a third of the 498-seat house, which the court said violated rules of equality between candidates.
Brotherhood lawyers say another court, Egypt’s highest administrative court, is likely to back their claim.
“This is likely to happen,” said Abdel-Ghaffour, whose Islamist party won 25 percent of the dissolved parliament seats in addition to the Brotherhood’s nearly 50 percent. “A third of parliament can be dissolved and re-elected in 75 days.”
The speaker of the dissolved parliament met with the No. 2 general on the military council, Chief of Staff Gen. Sami Anan, twice since the court decision on June 14.
Abdel-Ghaffour said talks also centered on the reassurances the generals were seeking regarding the Brotherhood’s control of the new government, including demands that Morsi appoint a prime minister who is a technocrat from outside the Brotherhood.
“Both sides want reassurances,” Abdel-Ghaffour said. “But there is a will for the caravan to keep moving,” he said, using an Arabic expression.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 06/26/2012