By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: A list of nominees for the new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was announced on its Facebook and Twitter pages Sunday morning.
Cabinet spokesperson Magdi Radi told Daily News Egypt however that the ministers’ posts are not official until they take the oath on Monday.
Secretary General of Al-Wafd Party Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour and former governor of Minya, Mansour El-Essawy, both confirmed that they accepted their positions as ministers of tourism and interior, respectively.
Nabil Elaraby, a former judge at the International Court of Justice, also accepted the post of Egypt’s foreign minister.
Earlier on Sunday, five new ministers were announced in the second Cabinet reshuffle since the military council took charge on Feb. 11.
The names announced were the same seen in the previous government headed by Ahmed Shafiq including Atef Abdel Hamid as Minister of Transport, Ibrahim Manaa as Minister of Civil Aviation, Fathi ElBaradei as Minister of Housing, Hassan Younes as Minister of Electricity and Fayza Aboul Naga as Minister of Planning and International Cooperation.
“It’s my pleasure to continue serving as Minister of Tourism for the new Cabinet,” Abdel Nour told DNE.
Late on Saturday El-Essawy, former governor of Minya, also confirmed his appointment as interior minister in the new Cabinet replacing Mahmoud Wagdi.
El-Essawy told state news agency MENA that he would exert all his efforts to restore safety and stability to Egypt’s streets and would take the necessary measures to restore trust between the people and the police.
Other candidates include Emad Abou Ghazy as minister of culture and antiquities, Sayed Mishaal as minister of state for military production and Councilor Mohamed Abdel Aziz Al-Guindy as minister of justice.
Samir Radwan is staying on as minister of finance.
Shafiq’s former government was under fire for including many prominent figures from ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
Shafiq resigned on Thursday and was replaced by Sharaf, sparking celebrations from protesters who demand a purge of the remnants of Mubarak’s regime.
Sharaf gave a speech to protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday vowing to heed protesters’ demands.
Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal had announced the names of strong candidates for the ministry of justice, the foreign ministry and the ministry of culture, on Mehwar TV’s daily talk show “90 Minutes” on Saturday.
These names included Councilor Adel Qoura as minister of justice and prominent writer Sekina Fouad as minister of culture.
Qoura is also head of the official fact finding committee, handpicked by Shafiq, to investigate the violence that took place against peaceful protesters during Egypt’s revolution which broke out on Jan. 25.
Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political analyst from Al-Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, told DNE, “These announcements of the new Cabinet prove that there are still figures from the former corrupt regime influencing the reshuffle.”
“Take Yehia El-Gamal, for example, he doesn’t interact with the media and has no connection with the youth of the revolution and their demands,” Nabil said. “How can he remain a leading figure in the Cabinet?”
“I believe this Cabinet won’t last long if it continues to depend on old figures from the former regime,” Nabil said.
“The people will start demonstrating again and will not condone this,” he added.
