Senior Egyptian jurist Adly Mahmoud Mansour has suddenly found himself in the spotlight as the civilian face of the Army-backed interim government following dramatic ouster of the Arab country’s first democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi.
The name of Mansour — head of Egypt’s high constitutional court — as transitional President was announced by Army Chief Gen Abdel Fattah Sisi, who says the military commanders had no desire to rule, clearly to allay fears abroad that this was a coup d’etat.
The Army, Egypt’s the most powerful institution, abruptly forced Morsi out of office as a 48-hour ultimatum in the wake of massive protests against his turbulent rule expired last night.
On July 1, Mansour assumed charge as the head of the high constitutional court (HCC) and just two days later, he found himself in the role of the country’s interim president to implement the Army’s roadmap.
67-year-old Mansour, who was appointed to the court in 1992, will hold executive authority as transitional president until new presidential elections are held, Gen Sisi announced in a televised speech to the nation last night.
However, it is yet to be seen how much authority Mansour, who is said to be highly regarded, will truly wield.
Born in 1945, Mansour received a licence to practise law from the Cairo University in 1967 and joined the state council in 1970, rising in the ranks until he was appointed deputy president of the HCC in 1992.
He was appointed as its president in May 2013 and took up his post on July 1 following retirement of justice Maher El-Beheiry.
Mansour was appointed in line with a new 2011 law, which stipulated that HCC heads should be appointed from within the court system. For 20 years, the HCC head was chosen from outside the constitutional court, Ahram online reported.
Cairo-born Mansour helped draft the supervision law for the presidential elections that brought Morsi to power in 2012, which included setting a legal timeframe for electoral campaigning.