Presidential hopeful and Islamic thinker Mohamed Selim El-Awa
Six presidential hopefuls met Wednesday night and proposed a shorter interim period after which the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) should hand power to an elected civilian president by April 2012.
The meeting was attended by candidates Mohamed Selim El Awa, who read the statement, Hamdeen Sabahi, Abdel Moniem Abul fottouh and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. Two of the candidates, former Arab League chief Amr Mussa and Judge Hisham Bastawisi, delegated representatives to the press conference announcing their demands.
Liberal candidate Mohammed ElBaradei did not attend or sign the statement, which carried the names of three Islamist candidates -- Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotuh, El Awa and Abu Ismail -- along with Nasserist, Hamdeen Sabahi.
The statement called for presidential elections on April 1 and that SCAF would hand over power by April 20. The statement also called for a shortened parliamentary elections timetable to start November 28 and end March 11.
The presidential hopefuls also stated that the reactivation of emergency law was illegal and that they considered it void since september 30.
Earlier on Wednesday, the revolutionary youth coalition announced three scenarios to shorten the interim period via a more compressed timetable than the one proposed by the ruling military in a highly controversial statement issued on Saturday evening and signed by the leaders of 15 political parties. The time-table set down in that statement would keep the military in power until January 2013 at the earliest, and possibly through much of that year.
The bulk of the country's political forces, including the signatories to the statement, have expressed their concern over the continued rule of the military, and believe that the time-table proposed by SCAF holds off for much too long the transfer of power to a civilian government.
The military, who took charge of the country after the 18 days uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 11 February, had initially promised to hand over power to a civilian government within six months. However, their new proposed timetable suggests that they may stay in power for two more years.
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