Muslim Brotherhood picks members of proposed coalition government

The Muslim Brotherhood has picked nominees for a potential coalition government led by Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater, a source from the Brotherhood said.

The Brotherhood is waiting for a decision from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to dissolve Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet or for a motion from Parliament to withdraw confidence in the current government, the source said, saying the second possibility was more likely.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Shater has chosen the members of the proposed cabinet.

Brotherhood businessman Hassan Malek, a member who was with Shater in prison, is a nominee for the Finance Ministry, the source said. But Malek told Al-Masry Al-Youm he had no knowledge of the nomination.

Amr Drag, secretary for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Giza, is a nominee for the Higher Education Ministry; labor leader Youssry Bayoumy, a Brotherhood MP, is a nominee for the Manpower Ministry; and Ahmed Suleiman, FJP assistant secretary general, is a nominee for the Planning and International Cooperation Ministry, the source said.

Mohamed Abdel Moneim al-Sawy will likely be appointed to the Culture Ministry, while the Brotherhood is still choosing between Mohsen Rady, deputy for the Parliament’s Culture Committee, and Salah Abdel Maqsoud, vice president of the Journalists Syndicate, for the Information Ministry.

Mahmoud Hussein, secretary general for the Muslim Brotherhood, said the group is ready to form a coalition government but has not been asked to form one so far.

“We will announce the names of nominees when we are asked to form a government,” he added.

Jama’a al-Islamiya, meanwhile, said it supports the formation of a coalition government even if it does not have ministers in it. The group said it would like to have a say in the nomination of the Interior and Education ministers, though.

On Wednesday, Shater said the group is ready to form a coalition government in place of the current government headed by Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri.

The idea has gathered political support in the past days, but according to the constitutional declaration issued by the ruling military council last March, only SCAF can dismiss and form a cabinet during the transitional period.

A military source told Al-Masry Al-Youm Friday that SCAF does not plan to dismiss Ganzouri, and that the cabinet will stay in place until the military council hands power over to civilians by the end of June.

Source: Egypt Independent