A Wasat Party leader has called on Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Morsy and former candidates in the presidential race to attend Sunday’s People’s Assembly session to “explore the possibility of forming a presidential council.”
MP Essam Sultan, chairman of the party’s parliamentary bloc, also asked former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi and Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh to attend the session.
It is expected that in the session Morsy will pledge to make the former contenders his deputies if he is elected president.
On his official Facebook page, Sultan said, “I invite the candidates to attend the session as a prelude to swearing the oath provided for in Article 30 of the Constitutional Declaration before the entire assembly, in response to and as an implementation of the will of the Egyptian people, who are now revolting in Egypt’s squares.”
Article 30 requires Egypt's president to swear to respect the constitution and the law and the preserve the nation's independence.
Sultan said the step would resolve what he called the “unjustified refusal” of the head of the military council and its members to swear in before the People’s Assembly since they took over power from longtime leader Hosni Mubarak on 11 February last year.
Such a refusal was not supported by the constitution, the law or the will of the Egyptian people, Sultan said.
Politicians and revolutionary movements had suggested the formation of a presidential council that would include Morsy, Sabbahi and Abouel Fotouh to face former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, whose win in the first round of the presidential election angered many activists who view his victory as a return of the ousted Mubarak regime. The runoff is slated for 16 and 17 June.
Earlier today, Abouel Fotouh announced on Twitter that he would meet with Sabbahi and Morsy to discuss their plans for the runoff.
“The meeting will bring together a number of national figures who will all do their best to meet their responsibilities in light of current events the country is experiencing,” Abouel Fotouh said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
