BOTH sides in the struggle for power in Egypt were taken by surprise yesterday by the timetable for fresh elections set out by interim president Adli Mansour.
Essam el Erian of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) described the plan, which would suspend the Islamist-drafted constitution, put changes to a referendum and quickly set up parliamentary and presidential elections, as sending Egyptian democracy "back to zero". Meanwhile, the Tamarod movement, which organised the mass protests that resulted in the removal of elected president Mohamed Mursi by the army, was also unhappy, claiming it had not been consulted. This doubly cool reception is not necessarily a bad thing as it suggests some room for manoeuvre. At least it keeps the channels for political dialogue open.
With tensions rising following the deaths of 51 MB protesters at the hands of the army, Mr Mansour is right to show how quickly he plans to make way for a democratically-elected successor. He is right too to extend an olive branch to the Islamists (by retaining references to sharia law in the constitution). Another chink of light is the acceptance by the ultra-orthodox Nour Party of ex-finance minister Samir Radwan as a possible prime minister in an interim cabinet.
Politics is about compromise and the art of the possible. The conflicting accounts of how the protesters died and who started the shooting is a measure of how polarised Egyptian politics have become. The room for compromise shrinks as polarisation widens.
The MB continues to insist that Mr Mursi is returned to power. His election a year ago in free and fair elections may have been by a narrow majority but, as his supporters point out, it was a bigger margin of victory than Barack Obama's. However, he will not be reinstated. The problem, as the opposition observes, is that his policies not only deepened the country's economic crisis, sending inflation and unemployment soaring. He also excluded secularists from decision-making and seemed determined to push Egypt towards becoming an Islamic state. Institutions such as the press, the courts and the civil service, regarded as the pillars of democracy elsewhere, were undermined when he should have bolstered them. However, if Mr Mursi's government bore little resemblance to a democracy, neither does an administration propped up by an army whose senior officers jealously guard their privileges and whose soldiers are prepared to shoot protesters. The twin dangers of the resultant political vacuum are a counter-coup sweeping the corrupt cronies of Hosni Mubarak back to power and the rise of jihadist groups that would make the Brotherhood look like moderates.
The streets were calmer yesterday but the funerals of protesters and the beginning of Ramadan today could generate fresh sparks of anger that may even ignite a full scale civil war. That truly would represent Egyptian democracy going "back to zero". To avoid that the MB must reinforce its clarification that its rallying call is for a peaceful uprising. And the army and police must demonstrate their claim to protect all citizens by responding to protests proportionately. A war of words is infinitely preferable to more blood on the streets.
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