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News Analysis: Egypt's cabinet resignation unlikely to affect parliamentary polls: experts

Xinhua, September 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The resignation of Egypt's cabinet on Saturday is unlikely to affect the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in October, and it is considered a step in the right direction to refresh the country's political authority, said Egyptian political experts.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi accepted on Saturday the resignation of his Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and his cabinet and assigned outgoing Oil Minister Sheirf Ismail to form a new government.

POSITIVE MOVE

The cabinet resignation came more than a month before Egypt's long-awaited and repeatedly-delayed parliamentary elections, scheduled to kick off inside the country on October 18.

Electing a new parliament, which Sisi promised to be completed by end of 2015, is the third and final phase of a three-stage future roadmap, including presidential election and a new constitution, announced by Sisi on the removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013.

"I see it as a positive step that may give hope for the people about the future and make more people participate in the voting process during the parliamentary polls," Mohamed Kamal, professor of political sciences at Cairo University, told Xinhua. "It is a step forward in general," he added.

The professor believes the resignation must have been ordered by the president himself who may see that the country will go through a new stage with the parliamentary elections "and so it needs new faces to cope with the new stage."

CORRUPTION BEHIND RESIGNATION

Many experts believe that the cabinet resignation came as a result of a recent corruption scandal of former agriculture minister who has been forced to resign and then arrested for receiving millions of Egyptian pounds as bribe.

"The resignation has been expected after the agriculture ministry's involvement in corruption and the higher education ministry favored students belonging to families of senior officials, which violates the principle of equal opportunities," said Saeed al-Lawindi, political researcher and expert at Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

Realizing the mistake, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Universities decided on Saturday to freeze the decision made by outgoing higher education minister that excludes sons of officials from the geographic distribution on the country's universities.

Lawindi noted that another scandal afflicted the ministry of education when a distinguished high school student got a zero at the final exams, which provoked the public opinion against the government.

"The basic reason for the resignation is that the people wanted to dismiss this government, and President Sisi listened to the voice of his people and responded to them," Lawindi told Xinhua.

However, like many other analysts, the expert believes that the cabinet resignation will not affect the course of upcoming legislative elections "because the country is now going through a firm stage of transition to democracy that will not be affected by a reshuffle."

POLITICAL REFRESHMENT

"I believe that the cabinet resignation is an attempt to renew the blood of the political leadership as much as possible, after the past few days showed that corruption has afflicted a large number of ministries," said political writer and analyst Ammar Ali Hassan.

Egypt's current leadership seemed to have to avoid some of the mistakes made by Mahlab's government through recent slip of tongues of some ministers like those of education, higher education and justice, which have been seen by the citizens as arrogant and unfair.

"Their statements caused real crises, mobilized the public against the political authority and created an anti-government public opinion that seeks its change," Hassan, also former chief of the Middle East Center for Political Studies, told Xinhua.

With regards to the parliamentary polls, the political writer also ruled out the possibility that the cabinet resignation may affect them in any way.

"What Mahlab's government was supposed to do will be normally done by the new government of outgoing oil minister Sherif Ismail without affecting the upcoming polls," Hassan told Xinhua. Endit