Egypt’s Morsi Formally Sworn In

Mohamed Morsi has become Egypt’s first freely elected president since the country’s revolution almost a year and half ago.

The Muslim Brotherhood representative promised a new future the country, in a symbolic oath of office on Saturday night.

“We aspire to a better tomorrow, a new Egypt, and a second republic,” said Morsi, in a televised address to the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court.

“Today, the Egyptian people laid the foundation of a new life: absolute freedom, a genuine democracy and stability.”

Morsi, the Arab world’s first freely elected Islamist president, belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, widely regarded as a fundamentalist organization. The Brotherhood was also suppressed almost since its inception 84 years ago.

However, Morsi is a president without a legislative body. A day before polls opened in the final round of the presidential voting, Egypt’s high court dissolved parliament because of irregularities in the elections.

The military then transferred to itself legislative powers and issued further decrees giving it an effective veto over any new constitution.

In a separate address later on Saturday night to an audience of thousands at Cairo University, Morsi was careful to praise the role of the military in ensuring a peaceful transition of power.

“The armed forces are the shield and sword of the nation,” he said. “I pledge before God that I will safeguard that institution, soldiers and commanders, raise its prestige and support it with all the powers available to me so it can be stronger.”

However, he hinted that the institution should return legislative powers to an elected Parliament.

“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has honored its promise not to be a substitute for the popular will and the elected institutions will now return to carry out their duties as the glorious Egyptian army returns to being devoted to its mission of defending the nation’s borders and security,” he said.