Cairo dec. 8 (SPS) - Egypt's ruling military council has given some presidential powers to interim Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri.
The official news agency MENA reported Wednesday the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will maintain control of the army and judiciary as it hands over more power to Mr. Ganzouri.
Egypt's military rulers said Tuesday they would amend the constitution to give the prime minister more power than his predecessor Essam Sharaf, who quit amid unrest in the country last month. Critics accused the military ruling council of not giving the last Cabinet enough influence.
Mr. Ganzouri unveiled a new Cabinet lineup Wednesday featuring a new finance minister and some incumbent ministers who will be tasked with governing until the end of the parliamentary election process next year.
The finance minister, Mumtaz al-Saeed, is a ministry veteran who faces the challenge of stabilizing an economy battered by unrest since February's ouster of autocratic president Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile, Egyptians are awaiting official results from the runoff parliamentary elections held earlier this week. The election commission says it will announce the results later Wednesday.
The Muslim Brotherhood says its political party has won almost two-thirds of the parliamentary seats reserved for individual candidates in the opening rounds of the lower house elections. If confirmed, the Brotherhood's individual seat victories put the movement on track to become the leading power in the 498-member assembly.
In a statement Wednesday, the Islamist group's Freedom and Justice party says it won 36 of the 56 individual seats that were contested in nine provinces, including the two largest cities of Cairo and Alexandria. It says Freedom and Justice candidates won 34 seats in runoff elections on Monday and Tuesday after winning outright victories in two other seats in last week's first round of voting.
The Brotherhood's party already had won the largest share of seats reserved for parties in last week's vote, securing 37 percent of ballots in the nine provinces, compared to 24 percent for its nearest rival, the ultra-conservative Salafist Nour party. Egypt's liberal coalition was a distant third.
In the coming weeks, Egyptians in the remaining 18 provinces will join the voting for the lower house of parliament. Elections for parliament's less-powerful upper house will begin in late January and finish in March. (SPS)
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