Noticias

The expected formation of Egypt's new cabinet has been held up after several candidates turned down offers of ministerial positions from Prime Minister Ibrahim Melheb, two government sources said on Sunday.

Melheb is forming a new government following President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's election victory last month. He had not been expected to make sweeping changes, and officials had said he would unveil his new cabinet on Sunday.

But government sources said on Sunday evening the premier was still trying to fill several portfolios.

Head of Egypt’s Salafist Nour Party, Younis Makhioun, said he expects his party to win the same percentage of parliamentary seats it did in 2012 -- nearly 24% of the total.

He’s 79-years-old, frail and a recent widower, but today he surrounded himself with the blaring sounds of celebratory horns, speakers blasting out hip-shaking tunes and spirited crowds.

The man, who goes by the name of Abu Ashraf and lives in Cairo, was standing at the city’s iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday, just hours after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was sworn in and officially became the country’s seventh president.

El ex jefe del Consejo Supremo de las Fuerzas Armadas de Egipto, el general retirado Abdelfatá Al Sisi, es ya nuevo presidente del país tras prestar juramento ante el Tribunal Supremo Constitucional de El Cairo este domingo.

"Juro por Dios guardar lealtad al régimen de la República", dijo en su proclamación Al Sisi, quien venció en las elecciones presidenciales celebradas en mayo con el 97% de los votos.

A law passed by Egypt's interim president will set the stage for parliamentary elections this year but political parties fear it will return the country to a system similar to one under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

One of the most significant changes in the election law is a return to a system where individual candidates take the majority of seats in parliament, rather than party lists of candidates.

Of the 540 parliament members to be elected, 420 will be drawn from individual candidate lists while 120 will be from absolute closed lists.

The number of seats of Egypt's House of Representatives, or lower house of parliament, will be decreased from an originally proposed figure of 630 to 567, said Mahmoud Fawzi, spokesman of the technical committee in charge of recently amending Egypt's parliamentary election laws.

The decision comes after a cabinet meeting held by interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahleb on Wednesday evening in which a decrease in the number of parliamentary seats was endorsed.

The European Union extended congratulations to former military chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi for his elections victory this week, saying the conclusion of elections “marks an important step in the implementation of the constitutional roadmap towards the transition to democracy in Egypt”.

The EU said it trusted that Al-Sisi would tackle “serious issues” including economic problems, “deep divisions within society”, security, and “the rest of human rights of all Egyptian citizens in line with international obligations and guaranteed by the new constitution”.

´

The US and the UK have said they look forward to working with Egypt's newly elected President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, while warning the former general to take steps to guarantee freedom of expression.

The White House said it hoped to advance its strategic partnership with Cairo and the "many interests" the countries shares, in a statment published on Wednesday.

A day earlier, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he looked forward to working with the former army chief's government to strengthen the "broad and productive" relationship between Egypt and the UK.