CAIRO, Egypt. - On Tuesday, Egypt's newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, appointed Hisham Qandil as the country's prime minister. The water resource minister has been asked to form a cabinet as his first official task as the new Prime Minister.
A spokesman for president, Yasser Ali, told the state news agency, "Qandi is an independent, nationalist figure who does not belong to any political group, either before the January 25 revolution or after it," as reported by Bloomberg.
The formation of the cabinet is an important for the transfer of power from the administration appointed by the Military council. Although the transfer of power was official made in June, the military maintained certain authorities.
Earlier this month, Mursi, promised the nation was to try and restore the democratically elected parliament which was dissolved by the nation's Supreme Court a week before the presidential elections. Later the Supreme Court released a statement declaring, all decisions were "final and not subject to appeal....not a party to any political confrontation," as reported by BBC News.
The parliament was overwhelmingly occupied by his party - Muslim Brotherhood.
The Supreme Court, days before the presidential elections, rendered the election of the parliament, which was overwhelmingly occupied by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, as unconstitutional and thus dissolved it. The recommendation came from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) in June.
It is important to keep in mind that when Mursi was elected the country did not have an established constitution that defined his powers. The constitution was also dissolved close to the time of the elections.
Morsi has his work cut out for him. In addition to the power struggle between the government and military, Morsi announced that the economy was one of his top priorities. Establishing stability and focusing on security are other top priorities for the new president-elect.
In his victory on speech Morsi said, "We as Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, are preachers of civilization and building; so we were, and so we will remain, God willing, We will face together the strife and conspiracies that target our national unity....We are all equal in rights, and we all have duties toward this homeland... But for me, I have no rights, I have only duties," as he moved into office, according to the New York Times.
Rumors are floating that the new president-elect Mohamed Morsi has selected a woman and a Christian to serve as his two vice presidents. The appointment comes as a measure to abate suspicions about the Islamist president and his party - the Muslim Brotherhood.
