Presidential sources told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Friday that interim president Adly Mansour decided, upon the national dialogue results, to hold the presidential elections before the parliamentary.
The sources expected the presidential elections to take place in March.
According to the newspaper, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will announce his position about the possibility of running for president in a speech after meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
The newspaper quoted a military official as saying that there was a consensus among leaders of the armed forces to support Sisi for president, especially after the positive results of the referendum.
Not all political forces, however, agree that presidential elections should take place first.
“The 6 April Youth Movement believes that the state should not deviate from the roadmap that was announced on 3 July 2013,” said Mohammed Moustafa, a spokesperson for the group's political bureau.
Moustafa added that in order to avoid the ‘dictator’ president scenario, Egyptians need to move forward with parliamentary elections as soon as possible.
“The roadmap said that parliamentary elections should be first,” he added. “If we start with the presidential elections, it will be in direct violation of the roadmap, which will cause chaos in the political scene.”
The Nour party had similar fears.
“If we start with the presidential elections, we will grant the new president both legislative and executive authorities,” Salah Abdel Maqsoud, one of the party's leaders, told Egypt Independent. “We are going to repeat the same scenario that took place during the rule of former president Mohammed Morsy.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
