Military sets poll timetable

Egypt’s new military regime dismantled ousted Hosni Mubarak’s former regime yesterday, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and promising a referendum on political reform.
While the civilian cabinet met for the first time since Mubarak’s downfall, the generals made it clear where authority now lies, issuing a proclamation setting a six-month timetable to prepare democratic elections.
The latest moves spelled the end of the political system that underpinned Mubarak’s 30-year rule which ended on Friday when he was driven from power after an 18-day pro-democracy uprising.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ “communique number five” said it would “run the affairs of the country on a temporary basis for six months or until the end of parliamentary and presidential elections.”
The communique — read on state television — said the military would form a panel to rewrite the constitution, which effectively locked down power for Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and submit it to a referendum.
The dissolved legislative body was seen as illegitimate following elections last year that were marred by widespread allegations of fraud and gave the NDP an overwhelming majority.
The statement also confirmed that the chairman of the supreme military council, Mubarak’s defence minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, is now de facto head of state and represents Egypt on the international stage.
The moves came as the famed Egyptian Museum announced that several priceless artefacts had been looted during the initial unrest sparked by the revolt and the widely hated police force marched in support of the uprising.
Zahi Hawass, minister of state for antiquities, said that several ancient treasures had been stolen from the museum, including a statue of the renowned boy king Tutankhamun.
The missing objects include “a gilded wood statue of the 18th Dynasty king Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess” and parts of another statue showing him harpooning, he said.
Looters had broken into the museum off Cairo’s Tahrir Square on January 28, during clashes between protesters and riot police who used tear gas and water cannon to try to crush the revolt before being driven from the streets.
Yesterday, troops fired warning shots and scuffles broke out when policemen protested to restore their reputation and win pay rises after they found themselves on the wrong side of the uprising.
Egypt’s police are broadly despised and seen as brutal and corrupt, while the military has been embraced by the anti-regime protesters. But the police protesting yesterday insisted that had been ordered to deal harshly with the protests and were underpaid by their government masters.
Yesterday’s cabinet meeting came a day after the resignation of the highly unpopular information minister Anas al-Fiki, who was allegedly behind a media campaign that presented protesters as foreign agents.
Fiki, Adly and sacked prime minister Ahmed Nazif have all been banned from leaving the country while they are investigated over graft allegations. A judicial source told AFP yesterday the prosecutor general would begin questioning Adly “within hours.”
The dissolution of Mubarak’s regime was reflected in the empty space outside the cabinet chamber where his portrait had hung for three decades. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said, however, that Mubarak remained at his residence in the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
In the meantime, military police were directing cars through Tahrir Square, epicentre of the revolt.
Hundreds of thousands of people who had occupied the emblematic square had returned home by yesterday after a massive volunteer clean-up effort saw people from all walks of life sweeping the streets and collecting rubbish. — AFP.