Mixed Message From U.S. Aids Egyptian Coup

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Egyptians are scheduled to hear whotheir first freely elected leader is Thursday, and he’s expectedto be the anti-establishment candidate from the MuslimBrotherhood. How much power the new president will have isanother question altogether.

Egypt’s transitional military rulers, in charge since thetoppling of dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was on life supportafter a stroke Tuesday, have slowed the march of democracy thelast 16 months. Last week, they went further to reverseprogress. The generals dismissed parliament when the high court,staffed by judges from the deposed regime, ruled that electionsfor a third of the seats had been flawed. The generals, who hadalready reimposed martial law, then assigned legislative powersand control over the budget to themselves and appointed a 100-member assembly to write a new constitution that would determinethe new president’s powers. This assembly, presumably, isdesigned to replace the one already named by parliament.