Jun 24, 2012
Source:PressTV
Egyptian protesters have remained in Cairo's Liberation Square, protesting what they see as a power grab by military rulers.
The results of the second round, which had been held on June 16-17, were originally set to be announced on June 21, but the ruling military postponed the announcement, prompting demonstrations, with angry protesters accusing the junta of manipulation and fraud.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohsen Saleh, professor at the Lebanese University, to hear his opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview which was conducted a day before Mohammed Morsi was elected as Egypt’s new president.
Press TV: Mohsen Saleh, let’s go back a little bit here regarding the last round of these votes. I mean are we to believe these vote results from the last round and then now from this round showing how close the race is in this case of course the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq?
I mean everybody in Egypt pretty much does not want remnants of the former regime in place and here we have the last prime minister, former general, siding to be so close in terms of having the votes of Egyptians. Do you believe in these vote results? Are we looking at what many have said a delay in the announcement as something that has been negotiated rather than being counted?
Saleh: Absolutely what you have mentioned is exactly true and everybody probably one of the observers would say well what is going on in Egypt if the army, the military council is backing really the revolution then should take the step in order to announce the results promptly without any delay because the voters and the election show that Morsi is in advance of Shafiq and it is probably a reasonable result because of the majority of the people who voted for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the council of representatives in the council of the people or Majlis al-Shaab.
The people in Egypt are scrupulous about the delay of this result and they think that probably the military council is really kind of [in] coalition with Ahmed Shafiq in order to bring the status quo into the political theatre in Egypt.
And that would flame the revolution because even if the Muslim Brotherhood are not convinced that they should go into a revolution while some of them probably, I heard your correspondent from Cairo saying that they won’t go to violence, of course they won’t go to violence but the Egyptians are not convinced that this kind of delay is without any aim, without a political aim.
If they want to go to a new rapprochement with the Muslim Brotherhood, then they should not really allow these violations from Shafiq’s team in order to destroy the whole operation, the electoral operation in Egypt and declare the real winner who is really Morsi and numbers show that Morsi is the winner.
Press TV: If we look at what SCAF has done, these ruling generals, really walk this through for us because I do not quite understand it. They come, they dissolve parliament and then they come and they issue this constitutional declaration giving them sweeping powers basically stripping the president of any authority.
I mean that is not what Egyptians wanted and basically you are looking at the ruling generals dictating to them which in essence brings about another dictator if Shafiq was to come into power with the ruling generals obviously ruling the country. That is what it appears, doesn’t it?
Saleh: Yes it seems so, you are absolutely right because when they dissolved the parliament and they issued a new kind of legislative declaration and probably they absorbed the whole legitimate power and authority from the council and from the parliament and from other parties and they declared themselves sort of a council dictatorship and they allowed the Ahmed Shafiq’s team to go and have the freedom instead of isolating Ahmed Shafiq and all these bunch of the Mubarak’s regime to go into the political life.
They allowed them to participate forcefully and tried to hinder the revolution from accomplishing its goals in order to create a kind of a new milieu, political milieu would assure people of social justice and of course cut all kinds of relations with the Israelis and the Americans and it seems to me that I have heard some news that the United States is paying about 600 civil associations in order to deteriorate the situation in Egypt.
I guess the military council should have this kind or they have this kind of information and they have already detained 19 Americans who have been found that paid money in order to make troubles inside Egypt.
I guess it is about time for the military council to sit frankly and really give the authority to the people and to Morsi and the real representatives, I would say to the Egyptians in order to create this new political environment and also create a kind of feeling of peace and tranquility in Egypt not to create this kind of volatile sensations inside Egypt. Everyday people go to the [Tahrir Square] and to the other squares and this would not bring Egypt into what the revolutionaries wanted.
They are bringing really a kind of chaotic intellectual scene I would say to create trouble in Egypt. For whose sake they are doing so?
Press TV: Mohsen Saleh, when we look at a third party it almost makes me point to the direction of what former US President Jimmy Carter said this past winter after the meeting he had with the ruling generals and he said that there is no intention by the ruling generals to relinquish power.
How much of an influence do you think United States is playing regarding the way that this has transpired in the past week to evolve to this point where they have made these moves such as the stripping the president of his powers and the declaration, dissolving parliament etc. I mean after all Ahmed Shafiq would be the preferred candidate for the United States, for Israel, wouldn’t it?
Saleh: That is true, that is what I am afraid of. The military council should show that the Americans and the Israelis are not part of this political game in Egypt and I guess there are parties in Egypt deserve to participate in the political life and I guess they are able to bring Egypt out of this dilemma and the crisis.
And Egyptians are really fed up with this kind of Israeli and American interventions and they have seen a lot of problems and spies and collaborators during Hosni Mubarak and after Hosni Mubarak and I guess the military it should be keen to see Egypt free of the Israelis and the Americans and should allow the Egyptians to create themselves or to recreate themselves in order to be part of this political matrix in the region and create a kind of relation with the resistance movement in Palestine, in Lebanon, with Iran, with Iraq, with Syria because I guess the Egyptian army paid a lot of blood and money and sweat in order to liberate Sinai and also the Gaza Strip.
I guess people of Egypt who paid this kind of price deserve to go into the arena and say it clearly that we want Egypt to the Egyptians. We want Egypt free of the Israelis and the Americans and “no” to Camp David and “no” to any kind of alliance with the West who are conspiring against this region from Afghanistan to Iran, to Palestine. What they have done to Palestine? What they have done to Gaza?
And it is about time I guess people even went to the streets in order to express such kinds of concerns, of problems.
AHK/HGH
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