The head of Egypt’s armed forces, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has just made a statement on Egyptian television. The armed forces, he says, have heeded the call of the Egyptian people “not to hold the reins of power or to rule but to discharge its civil responsibility. This is the message received by the Egyptian armed forces from all the corners of Egypt.” And he has announced a “road map” that he says was agreed at a meeting by all the main political forces, consisting of the following moves:
- The constitution will be “provisionally suspended.”
- The chief justice of the supreme constitutional court, Adly Mansour, will be made the acting president, pending a presidential election (for which el-Sisi did not specify a date), and will have the power to hand down presidential decrees.
- A technocratic government will be put in place with the power to run national affairs and propose amendments to the suspended constitution.
- There will be a charter of ethics for the media.
- There will be a “national reconciliation committee” for all the main political parties.