The secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Culture, Said Tawfiq, announces that the voting for the state prizes will be postponed until 30 June.

Minister of Culture Saber Arab was supposed to head the voting on Tuesday, 26 June for the state prizes: Nile Prize, Encouragement Prize, Award for Excellence and a Discretionary Award, and winners were to be announced on 27 June, but the entire process was delayed until the end of the month.

Considering the cabinet resigned yesterday, however, and there is no legal mandate triggered in such instances to put anyone in charge of leading the meeting, the voting has been postponed.

Tawfiq claims that the minister is still in power until a new cabinet is appointed by the elected president Mohamed Morsi, and that the only solution is for the minister to delegate to him, as the secretary general, to lead the meeting on 30 June.

The Supreme Council for Culture is the official body entitled to grant the state prizes in literature, sciences, human sciences, economy and other fields. The highest prize it grants is the Nile Prize.