Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy has denied rumors that Defense Minister abdel Fattah al-Sisi is running the country.
In an interview on Saturday on the privately-owned satellite TV channel Dream 2, Beblawy said Sisi works within the ministry as a regular minister. Beblawy, however, admitted that Sisi attends most meetings and that his popularity positively supports the Cabinet.
Beblawy also denied military intervention within the Cabinet’s decisions or choices of ministers and officials, emphasizing the importance of complete coordination between the ministers.
He added that Sisi’s decision to run for elections is a personal one, adding that having a strong man in presidency is required, but in the end, it is between the people and Sisi.
Beblawy said Sisi already enjoys many of the powers that a president wields, adding that Interim President Adly Mansour is performing his political duty while the Cabinet is performing the executive work.
“The 30 June revolution was an extension of the 25 January revolution. The first step on the roadmap was drafting the Constitution, which is a good step. Members of the committee of 50 were tasked with a national duty,” Beblawy said.
He added that people who do not vote on the Constitution would be failing their duties to their country and described the referendum as ‘the most dangerous [step] in the roadmap.’
“Every citizen should be aware of the results following a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote on the Constitution,” Beblawy said.
Beblawy continued saying that the state has a political responsibility to make sure the referendum runs smoothly, which includes explaining the Constitution to citizens, providing a correct database with the names, working on facilitating the process and securing the roads.
The Muslim Brotherhood, according to Beblawy, will try to ruin the referendum process. However, Beblawy said that the country is ready for any threats.
He considered the Brotherhood’s announcement to boycott the referendum as ‘political maneuver’ and expected them to use illegal means, such as violence or money, to disrupt the referendum. He stressed that mass voting is the only way to guarantee the integrity of the [democratic] process.
Beblawy was confident that there would be a high turnout and predicted that there will be a high ‘yes’ vote. He also said that “the new constitution preserves the Sharia in an unprecedented way.”
In addition, Beblawy expressed reservations over security guards returning to universities. “Security presence on campus has always been linked in our minds to security reports and intervention in education… What we did is arrange the permanent presence of police outside [rather than inside] the universities to guarantee the continuity of the educational process.”
The Muslim Brotherhood students, according to Beblawy, are trying to hamper the educational process to make people turn against the Cabinet. However, Beblawy insisted that “they failed, and people turned against the Brotherhood and rejected the Brotherhood students’ actions as a result of what happened.”
The Interior Ministry thwarted an attempt by the Brotherhood to create confrontation between the students and police inside the universities, he said. He added that the “police avoided the trap set by the Brotherhood to confront the students. The police acted wisely and did not get involved in a confrontation, which was intended only to create victims. There is a scheme of bloodshed inside universities to kill students and accuse police of the murder.”
Mansour called on voters to cast their ballots in the constitutional referendum on 14 and 15 January.
Edited translation from MENA and Al-Masry Al-Youm
