Morsi’s oath seen as challenge to military
‘PEOPLE POWER’
CAIRO • Egypt’s Islamist president-elect Mohamed Morsi took an informal oath of office Friday before tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in a slap at the generals trying to limit his power.
“I swear by God that I will sincerely protect the republican system and that I respect the constitution and the rule of law,” he said to wild cheers from the crowd, many of whom were followers of his once-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
“I will look after the interests of the people and protect the independence of the nation and the safety of its territory.”
He is to be sworn in officially on Saturday by the constitutional court, rather than by parliament, as is usual.
The court dissolved the Islamist-dominated lower house this month in a series of measures designed to ensure the generals who took over from the ousted Hosni Mubarak will keep a strong grip on Egypt’s affairs even after Mr. Morsi takes power.
“There is no power above people power,” the president-elect said. “Today you are the source of this power. You give this power to whoever you want and you withhold it from whoever you want.”
His defiant speech was a clear challenge to the army, which also says it represents the will of the people.
The 60-year-old U.s.-trained engineer addressed himself to “the Muslims and Christians of Egypt” and promised them a “civil, nationalist, constitutional state.”
Tens of thousands of people cheered his arrival in the square that was the hub of the anti-mubarak uprising.
“Say it loud, Egyptians, Morsi is the president of the republic,” they chanted. “A full revolution or nothing. Down, down with military rule. We, the people, are the red line.”
Mr. Morsi was declared president last Sunday, a nerveracking week after a runoff vote in which he narrowly beat former air force chief Ahmed Shafik, who was Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister.
After being sworn in as the first freely elected civilian president of the most populous Arab state on Saturday, Mr. Morsi plans to speak at Cairo University.
Hundreds of protesters have been camped out in Tahrir for weeks to press the army to transfer power to civilians.
“I’m here to tell the military council that we, the people, elected parliament so it is only us, the people, who can dissolve it,” said Intissar al-sakka, a teacher and a member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
Like many of the women in Tahrir, she was wearing a waist-length khemar veil of the kind favoured by Mr. Morsi’s wife.
The military council has long promised to hand over power to the next president by July 1, but army sources said the ceremony had been postponed, without giving a reason or a new date.
The generals have seized new powers this month, giving themselves veto rights over the drafting of a new constitution, naming a National Defence Council to run defence and foreign policies and decreeing their control of all military affairs.