Obama’s Egypt Plan: Mubarak-ism Without Mubarak

With the Obama administration trying to impose Mubarak-ism with Mubarak, easing the old lizard-headed dictator out and ushering in Omar Suleiman — recently appointed Vice President and formerly Egypt’s top intelligence official and torturer-in-chief —  there may be a slight glitch. Aside, that is, from the fact that the protest movement will never agree.

The glitch is that the Egyptian Constitution has very specific provisions for the permanent disability of a President. If Egypt’s chief executive is temporarily unable to fulfill his duties, but will eventually return to office, the constitution says the Vice President takes over. However, if, as in the case of Mubarak’s departure, a President is permanently out of office, for some reason, then the Speaker of the People’s Assembly takes over the top spot. Here are the relevant passage from the Constitution:

“In case of the vacancy of the Presidential office or the permanent disability of the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the People’s Assembly shall temporarily assume the Presidency. In case the People’s Assembly is dissolved at such a time the President of the Supreme Constitutional Court shall take over the Presidency on condition that neither one shall nominate himself for the Presidency.

“The People’s Assembly shall then proclaim the vacancy of the office of President .

“The President of the Republic shall be chosen within a maximum period of sixty days form the date of the vacancy of the Presidential office.”

By law, the transition period everyone is talking about must be no longer than 60 days — no waiting until September. Not that they’re sticklers for the law in Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt.

So who is the Speaker of the faux-Parliament known as the “People’s Assembly”? He’s one Ahmad Fathi Sorour, a ruling party hack who has held the position since 1998. If you go to his Facebook page, it reads:

“Ahmad Fathi Sorour (born 9 July 1932) is an Egyptian politician who has been the speaker of the People’s Assembly since 1991. Until January 29, 2011, when Hosni Mubnarak appointed Omar Suleiman as Vice President, he was the first in the line of succession to become President of Egypt if Mubarak died or became incapacitated.”

As we can see from the above-cited passages from the Egyptian Constitution, this interpretation is quite incorrect, but I guess Mr. Sorour thinks discretion is the better part of valor in this case. In any event, he wouldn’t want to stand between Egypt and the inauguration of a new era of “democracy” and respect for the rule of law.