Snapshots and Glimpses from the Morsi Administration, Day 1

Morsi Checks Out the Presidential Office

There had been some uncertainty as to whether the new President of Egypt would use the Presidential Palace favored by Husni Mubarak as his day-to-day office, ‘Uruba Palace in Heliopolis, or one of the other Presidential Palaces. Today, he motorcaded to ‘Uruba and checked out the office.

But the uniforms were visible too. Perhaps the generals needed to make sure all the hidden microphones were working:

Among other developments, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party ended Morsi's membership officially, so the President will be above party. (No one believes this means anything. They are right.)

The Cabinet under Prime Minister Ganzuri resigned. The President will name a new Prime Minister and Cabinet, though in addition to SCAF having reserved the Defense Ministry to itself, there were reports that it will also appoint the Foreign and Interior Ministries.

Morsi will also be appointing one or more Vice Presidents. The Prime Minister, Cabinet and Vice Presidencies will be the first test of whether the Muslim Brotherhood will in fact share power with a broad spectrum of Egyptian political life.

There is still some confusion over whether he will take his oath before the Supreme Constitutional Court, in the absence of Parliament (the officially correct place) or whether he might continue to challenge the dissolution of Parliament by taking the oath in front of the dissolved body, though it's likely he has already cut a deal with SCAF on this issue.

Meanwhile, a website and Facebook group (both links in Arabic) called "MorsiMeter" (مرسي ميتر) has been set up to monitor and rate Morsi's first 100 days in office. Here's an article about it.

Meanwhile on the lighter side, there's a Facebook group for opponents of the Brotherhood planning a march on the Presidential Palace carrying bottles of beer. (Site is mostly in Arabic.) I guess they're making their priorities clear to the new President.

I'm adding a "Muhammad Morsi" tag beginning with this post, but earlier postings won't carry it; use the search field to find earlier articles.