CAIRO: Egypt’s new prime minister, Hisham Qandil, will announce a cabinet on Thursday, almost a month after President Muhammad Mursi took office amid a power struggle with the military, state media reported on Saturday.
Qandil, a former irrigation minister, has been in consultations with candidates since Mursi appointed him last week to head the new government, which must carry out the president’s ambitious plans for the country.
“Qandil said he will announce the final cabinet line up on Thursday,” the official MENA news agency reported.
The new team will replace one appointed by the military, which took charge after a popular uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak last year and which still has broad powers after formally transferring control to Mursi.
In a sign of the military’s continuing influence, it will choose the defense minister. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who ruled Egypt after Mubarak’s ouster, served as the dictator’s defense minister for two decades.
Qandil has said he wants a government of technocrats and will appoint people based on their competence, which Mursi’s aides say is crucial if the government is to implement the president’s program.
Mursi pledges to restore security, end fuel shortages and waste mismanagement in months, while bettering Egyptians’ livelihoods.
The Islamist president shares power with the military, which took over legislative powers after a court ordered parliament dissolved in the run up to the June presidential run off election.
Backlash from allies
Meanwhile, an alliance of pro-democracy advocates has criticized Mursi for lacking transparency and alienating political groups with liberal leanings.
The National Front alliance — an umbrella group of democracy advocates, secularists and moderate Islamists behind the uprising that drove longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak from power last year — says Mursi has reneged on campaign promises to form a national unity government.
At a press conference on Saturday, members of the alliance reminded Mursi that they supported him in the decisive round of presidential elections last month, helping him beat old-guard rival Ahmed Shafiq.
Egypt PM to announce cabinet on Thursday
