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CAIRO, June 29, 2012 (AFP)
Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Morsi will be sworn in Saturday before the Constitutional Court, the presidency announced after differences with the army over the transfer of power.
Morsi “will go at 11 am (0900 GMT) Saturday to the Constitutional Court to take the oath before the Court’s general assembly”, said a statement released late Thursday by the official MENA news agency.
The president will then go on to Cairo University to celebrate his investiture and address the nation, the statement added.
Egypt’s president traditionally takes the oath in parliament, but the country’s top court has ordered the disbanding of the Islamist-dominated legislature.
The military subsequently assumed legislative powers and formed a powerful national security council headed by the president but dominated by generals.
By agreeing to be sworn in by the Constitutional Court, Morsi is effectively acknowledging the court’s decision to dissolve parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which fielded Morsi as its candidate in the election and from which he resigned after his victory, had insisted that the oath be taken before the legislature.
“There is a debate around the issue of swearing in and attempts are being made to reach a compromise that will satisfy all national forces,” MENA quoted Morsi’s spokesman Yasser Ali as saying earlier.
Egypt’s first civilian president, and the first elected since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak last year, still has to contend with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
The SCAF, which took control after Mubarak resigned, will retain broad powers even after it formally transfers control to Morsi.
The president-elect was to join a demonstration at the capital’s iconic Tahrir Square on Friday and speak on the “rebirth of Egypt”, MENA reported earlier.
The Brotherhood has called for a huge rally in the square Friday under the slogan: “Day of the transfer of power.”
Media reports said Morsi was consulting a cross-section of Egyptian society before appointing a premier and a cabinet mostly made up of technocrats.
