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The eligible voters go to the polls in the North African state on Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17, with Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party candidate, Mohammed Morsi running against former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq.

Many Egyptians fear that Shafiq is the undeclared candidate of the military council, and that the military-appointed election committee overseeing the election will forge the results in favor of Shafiq.
Angry protesters held rallies across the country, urging the authorities to ban Hosni Mubarak’s remnant from joining the race.

However, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) allowed Shafiq to stay in the voting, saying the parliament-approved political isolation law is unconstitutional.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hisham Jaber, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, to hear his opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all I like to get your opinion on the decision made by the Muslim Brotherhood to continue with the presidential elections despite the ruling of the Constitutional Court which moved to dissolve parliament and allow Ahmed Shafiq to run in the presidential runoff?

Jaber: Yes ma’am, actually what is going on in Egypt now and what happened, it is a real coup, legislative coup or constitutional coup and it was not a surprise that the Supreme Constitutional Court did dissolve and invalidated the parliament but the timing was in some way a surprise.

People in Egypt now are exhausted and disappointed and who made the revolution has a feeling that this revolution has been taken away or kidnapped and now the people in Egypt are going to elect one of the two, Ahmed Shafiq or Mohammed Morsi and they are facing unpleasant choices and nobody in the absence of any parliament or any constitution which is something strange and now this decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court brought Egypt to the period between last year February to the beginning of this year after the election of the new parliament.

People of course who did vote for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim fundamentalists were disappointed by this parliament. So we felt that many of the Egyptian people they are not very sorry about this decision but as we said they are worried about the future of their country since the authority is now legislative one and the executive one are both in the hands of the SCAF, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces.

And no one can know or pretend to know who is going to be president of Egypt– Ahmed Shafiq or Mohammed Morsi. In one hand, Ahmed Shafiq presents that, of course he is the man of the military forces but many of the Egyptians believe that he is the only hope to ensure a civilian state in Egypt.

On the other hand for Mohammed Morsi, people who would vote for Mohammed Morsi because he is the only alternative to challenge the military rules which has been running the country for six decades.

So there is a big problem. Ahmed Shafiq is counting on the votes of the Egyptian Christians for example for the Liberal, for some women, for the support of the Armed Forces who can control and have influence in some electors like military retired or whoever has any relation with the Armed Forces.

Press TV: Mr. Jabber let me cut in there, former head of the UN Nuclear Watchdog and Nobel Laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, he seems to think it does not matter who becomes president in the absence of a constitution and without a parliament. He says that Egypt is suffering now worse conditions than that were suffered under Mubarak and now there are risks of creating a new emperor. What do you say to that?

Jaber: Yes I think Mr. Mubarak went, was kicked out but the regime is still in Egypt, nothing has been changed. As you know the SCAF presents the old regime and there is not a lot of hope that a dramatic change will happen in Egypt whether Ahmed Shafiq will be president or Mohammed Morsi.
In one hand first of all we do not have a clear constitution which will give, will determine or will put the authorities of the new president and second what happened to the new parliament? All of the above will maybe draw the future of Egypt and people in Egypt are not very optimistic about any dramatic change in the future in Egypt.

Talking about foreign policy I think both will stain, will contain the same policy. We cannot deny the role of the Armed Forces whoever will be president. As we said many times that the Armed Forces in Egypt are involved in the society in many ways and they are presenting maybe ten million of the population because we are talking about the Armed Forces and the retired and their families.

And Armed Forces are involved in the agriculture, in the foreign policy, in the industry, in the banking, in the economy and second they will not go back to their barracks we are sure about this and now they have the two powers, the two authorities, the legislative one and the executive one and what happened after a year and a half for the revolution? Nothing has been changed in Egypt yet.

And I agree that it is not clear the future of Egypt. We cannot expect a major change in the foreign policy first and also in the economic policy inside and the Muslim Brotherhood for example are trying to play the role of moderate and trying to tell the military forces that like Mohammed Morsi said he will guarantee the interest of the Armed Forces and he will respect the rules of the society even the Armed Forces would not believe this and they are supporting Ahmed Shafiq.

On the other hand, Ahmed Shafiq is pro-American, is part of the old regime. The foreign policy will stay like it is if Ahmed Shafiq comes and if Mohammed Morsi will come also it will not have in foreign policy a major change and also who can solve the problems?

Egypt is facing many problems especially economic problems and I do not think Ahmed Shafiq or Mohammed Morsi who will solve the problems in the revolution in my opinion takes a long time to succeed.

Briefly I think Egypt needs more two or three years as a test to see who, and in my opinion as we said, both candidates will not succeed and the Egyptian revolution may slow down now and may wake up again in two years to choose a real parliament who can present the population because the Muslim Brotherhood really failed.

They did nothing since this parliament has been elected. For six months, they did not do anything and they did not make any law to protect the revolution and everybody knows that Muslim Brotherhood has not been from the beginning inside this revolution but they took advantage from this revolution.

And both of them Ahmed Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood they are counting on the support of Saudi Arabia to run the country especially in the economy to solve the economic problem in counting on Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Press TV: Considering the way things are looking right now, we come back to the question of the role of the people, it was the people that toppled Hosni Mubarak. What about the change that Egypt is going through right now?

You said that the people of Egypt are now exhausted, but with the way things are going do you see the people just sitting idly by and see how things just move along into the direction of the way SCAF wants it or do you see them actually taking this step further the way they did to topple Hosni Mubarak?

Jaber: I think the people are getting tired and if you look at the demonstration was not, the size of demonstrators on the Tahrir Square, was not at the level of the revolution because people are getting tired and of course they are exhausted and disappointed also.

I think we have to wait and see who is going to be the new president and what promises. Both candidates made a lot of promises and personally I do not believe any one of them that he can ensure the people of Egypt or he can do something important because he cannot.

People in Egypt will wait and we will see within maybe the next year what the new president can do and what are the authorities of this president based on the new constitution which is not born yet and second what parliament, the new parliament. But I am sure that the people in Egypt will not vote for the new parliament on the side of the Muslim Brotherhood like they did at the beginning of this year.

Everything is confused now in Egypt and no one can pretend to know what will happen in the next year. We have to wait and see.

Press TV: Right now no matter who gets elected the Muslim Brotherhood has called on its supporters and all Egyptians to vote en masse to make sure that if they want to preserve this revolution and see it through till the very end they must come out in droves and vote.

Do you think just a very participation of the people in the political process of a country today and tomorrow in the runoff will give a strong message to the SCAF that any tricks up their sleeves will be met with strong resistance from the people who will nothing but democracy?

Jaber: Yes I think Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsi is now working hard to get the voices, we are talking about four million of Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh and also for Hamdeen Sabbahi. They are trying to get those voices but I am not sure they will get the extreme majority of those voices because people in Egypt now are confused as we said and I repeat they are facing unpleasant choices between two candidates.

They will go, they will vote and on the other hand Ahmed Shafiq is supported, he has a lot of credits and financial support from outside also and you know we cannot deny that people are poor in Egypt and they need some financial support and Ahmed Shafiq is counting on the voices of the Christians and also the Liberal people in Egypt and some of the women because Mohammed Morsi as a candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Brotherhood we have to say it and I am sorry to say it they lost a lot of their credibility since the beginning because first they said we are interested to be in the parliament and not to have a majority and they came with a majority. They said we are not interested to be in the executive authority and they did not keep their words and they were running for presidency in Egypt.

So for many Egyptian people who are neutral, who are looking for the civilian state they do not believe them and they lost in my opinion some of their credibility and especially also they are counting on the support of Saudi Arabia and people do not, I am talking about free people in Egypt, civilian people who want a civilian country they will not believe that many of the Muslim Brotherhood and the extremists were having the flag of Saudi Arabia when one of the Mohafez or the Christian Mohafez within the protest or demonstration against a Christian Mohafez a few months ago, it was not a good behavior in my opinion for these groups at that time.

Many of the Egyptians want, first of all they have two objectives–want to live with their dignity, want to bring back the dignity of Egypt. They do not want to be related to the United States, then to Israel and the Egyptian people are nationalists but at the same time they want to live in the minimum of economy conditions and with their dignity.

AHK/HGH