CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood announced Tuesday that it would form a political party to run candidates for Egypt’s parliament, while a committee of judges and legal scholars started work on amending the nation’s constitution.
But the country’s military rulers ordered the committee to complete work in less than two weeks, suggesting that constitutional changes in the short term would not be as extensive as many critics of the old system had hoped.
The Brotherhood, one of the oldest Islamic movements in the Middle East, has long been officially banned from Egyptian politics, though members have been allowed to run as independent candidates for parliament. Brotherhood followers had held 20 percent of the parliamentary seats until former President Hosni Mubarak’s party swept widely criticized elections in November.
An open vote would be the first real test of the movement’s influence. Mubarak used the Brotherhood, which calls for a peaceful transition to a government based on Islamic law, as an excuse to justify repressive emergency laws.
The Brotherhood will not run a candidate for president, according to a statement on its website.
Signaling that times really have changed since Mubarak left office last week, state television Tuesday aired an interview with senior Brotherhood leader Essam Erian.
But it became clear Tuesday that fundamental constitutional change will have to wait at least until a new government is elected as early as this summer. The military charged the eight-member committee, headed by moderate Islamist Tareq Bishri, with amending election provisions, considering the restoration of limits on the number of terms a president can serve, and examining the validity of military courts trying civilians.
Not on a list of changes to be considered as published Tuesday by the government newspaper Al Ahram was eliminating a provision that allows for the imposition of ongoing emergency laws, though a committee member said the panel was not necessarily limited by the military’s suggestions.
The military abrogated the constitution after taking power Friday, raising hopes in some quarters that there would be major changes not only in election laws but also a softening of the almost unlimited powers of the presidency and an end of the provision saying Islam is the national religion. The country has a significant Coptic Christian minority that often complains of discrimination.
A powerful sandstorm and a national religious holiday on Tuesday, meanwhile, quieted most of the labor protests in Cairo that have continued since Mubarak stepped down.
