Cabinet vacancies

A government of technocrats is expected to be in place next week. Outgoing housing minister Ibrahim Mehleb, onetime member of president Hosni Mubaraks now dissolved National Democratic Party, was asked on Tuesday by interim President Adli Mansour to form a new government.

Mondays resignation by prime minister Hazem Al-Beblawi and his entire cabinet took analysts by surprise despite the recent flurry of stories promoting Mehleb as a possible replacement for Al-Beblawi.

Hani Mahmoud, the outgoing minister of administrative development, told reporters he had been summoned by phone on Monday morning to attend a rescheduled cabinet meeting. It began with prime minister Al-Beblawi briefly informing ministers that he had decided to resign to make room for the appointment of new blood. Most cabinet members were taken by surprise. We assumed the weekly cabinet meeting had been rescheduled so the prime minister could fly to Nigeria on the same day.

Al-Beblawi, said Mahmoud, informed his cabinet members that he had told Mansour on Sunday that his government had completed its job having worked to contain the violence that exploded after 30 June, improve security conditions and hold a referendum on the newly-drafted constitution. I think we can be proud of what we have achieved. Now it is the time for a new government to take charge, Mahmoud cited Al-Beblawi as saying.

According to cabinet spokesman Hani Salaheddin, the prime minister told the cabinet meeting that the coming stage in Egypts life is critical and that a new government was required to implement the second stage holding presidential and parliamentary elections of Egypts post-30 June political roadmap.

Speculation that a wave of industrial action in the last two weeks hastened Al-Beblawis departure is groundless, says Abdallah Al-Sinnawi, a former editor of Al-Arabi newspaper. These suggestions might furnish some kind of official excuse but the fact is the extent of strikes has been wildly exaggerated. They are limited and have caused little disruption to daily life.

It is far more likely, says Al-Sinnawi, that the government was forced to resign.

He points out that Al-Beblawi has been noticeably opaque about the reasons behind his decision. Al-Sinnawi does not rule out the possibility that the military, led by Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, orchestrated the cabinets removal.

Al-Sisi is expected to run in the presidential polls and it could easily be that the generals concluded a new government, presided over by a younger and more energetic prime minister like Mehleb, would best serve Al-Sisis presidential agenda.

A team has already been assembled to run Al-Sisis campaign, says Al-Sinnawi. From what I hear it includes Mubarak-era foreign minister and Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa as political advisor and the outgoing minister of youth Khaled Abdel-Aziz as executive director.

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Cabinet vacancies