Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri’s caretaker cabinet will continue in office until after Ramadan, officials have said.
According to Planning and International Cooperation Minister Faiza Abou El-Naga, President Mohamed Morsy met with the cabinet on Wednesday and tasked it with continuing to assume its duties and tackle the five main points of his first 100 days programme.
Aboul El-Naga told journalists in the temporary cabinet headquarters in Nasr City that Morsy tasked the cabinet with continuing to govern until he names a new prime minister.
Morsy had set himself several deadlines before regarding the naming of a premier, a figure he has guaranteed would be “independent” and “patriotic,” the latest of which was Wednesday. He has missed them all.
It has been 19 days since the president’s inauguration. The Ganzouri cabinet had submitted its resignation to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces before Morsy took over but was tasked
by its chairman, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, to continue its work in a caretaker capacity until Morsy appoints his own cabinet.
Morsy has now renewed that assignment as he seemingly faces trouble selecting a prime minster that would appease most political forces.
Prior to the announcement of his victory, Morsy promised the National Front, a group of revolutionary groups and figures that reluctantly agreed to back him in the face of his opponent, former Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, that he would appoint an independent premier with no affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood, or its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party which Morsy chaired before his victory.
He also promised that the majority of the cabinet would not come from either the Brotherhood or the FJP.
In the earlier days of his presidency, the names being touted were of independent political figures such as Nobel laureate and former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei and former Finance Minister Hazem El-Biblawy.
Much of this talk has died down recently with all reports mentioning technocratic economists with nothing to do with politics as possibilities.
The Ganzouri cabinet is likely to remain in power even after Morsy names his prime minister as he will then have the long task of naming individual ministers in consultation with the premier.
Morsy will have to decide on whether or not he will appoint a cabinet of non partisan technocrats or a wide coalition government with ministers from across the political spectrum. It is expected that many parties will each ask for certain portfolios as well as percentages of cabinet seats, each presenting a list of names they feel are suitable for posts.
