In an interview with Egyptian news website Masrawy.com, Essam Sharaf said the delay would allow the nation’s “political landscape” time to take shape.

Sharaf made clear that a delay is his personal preference, and that his interim government would do everything it can to ensure a fair and secure vote if the election went ahead as scheduled.

However, his comments would lend considerable weight to complaints by liberal and secularist parties that a September vote would be unfairly advantageous to the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest and best organized political group following the fall of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The next legislature will select a panel to draft a new constitution, and some fear a parliament dominated by Islamists could result in a document with an Islamist slant.

Sharaf’s wish to see a delay is shared by new political groups that arose from the Jan. 25-Feb. 11 uprising that toppled Mubarak’s regime. Most of these groups have their genesis in the youth organizations behind the uprising.