In this undated photo released by the Egyptian Defense Ministry, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, center, consoles a man at a funeral for several military personnel who were killed when a helicopter crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, at an undisclosed location in Egypt. – AP CAIRO – Egypt will hold a presidential poll this year before parliamentary elections, interim president Adly Mansour said Sunday, in a move seen to benefit army chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The election would be held from mid-April, according to a timetable included in a constitution adopted in a referendum this month. The military-installed government says the elections will restore democratic rule by the end of the year, after the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July. It had initially planned parliamentary elections first, but it has rescheduled the polls in line with demands for a president to be elected before the legislature, Mansour said. “I have taken a decision to amend the roadmap of the future by starting with a presidential election,” he said in an address on state television. Holding the presidential election first are expected to influence the outcome of the parliamentary poll. Candidates for the legislature are likely to rally around the elected president to improve their chances at the ballot box. This would mean a friendlier legislature for the president, analysts say. Sisi is the only serious potential candidate at the moment, although he has yet to announce his widely anticipated candidacy. The powerful army chief has said he would stand in the election if there were “popular demand.” Meanwhile, gunmen killed three Egyptian soldiers in an attack on a bus in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, the military said, prompting a warning from the army that it would eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood, which it blames for much of Egypt's political violence. Al Qaeda-inspired militant groups based in Sinai have stepped up attacks on security forces since the army toppled President Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood in July following mass protests against his rule. On Saturday, the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, 49 people were killed in anti-government protests which were attacked by supporters of the new political order and security forces, witnesses said. Security forces fired live rounds on Brotherhood supporters as they tried to set up a sit-in Cairo's Alf Maskan district, security sources said. The sources said that 23 people died in the incident, 22 from by bullet wounds, and that they were included in the official death toll of 49. The violence showed deep divisions that have flared often since the 2011 revolt that raised hopes of a stable democracy. In another attack in lawless Sinai, five soldiers were killed on Saturday when an army helicopter crashed in the north of the peninsula in an operation against militants. Security sources said it was a missile attack, without giving further details. The army has not commented on the cause of the crash. Militant group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem) claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an army helicopter in a statement posted on the internet. The group also said it was behind a wave of bomb attacks in Cairo on Friday which killed at least six people. Egyptian authorities make no distinction between militants operating in the Sinai and the Brotherhood, which renounced violence in the 1970s but has been declared a terrorist group by the Egyptian government. In a statement on Facebook, the army said: “We assure the Egyptian people of the great determination of its men to fight black terrorism and the complete elimination of the advocates of oppression and sedition and blasphemy from followers of the Muslim Brotherhood.” The soldiers who were killed in the bus attack were on their way back from holiday when gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, security sources said. Security forces have killed up to 1,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters and put the movement's top leaders in jail. But the tough measures have failed to pacify Egypt, which is of great strategic importance because of its peace treaty with Israel and control over the Suez Canal. Interim President Adly Mansour announced on Sunday that Egypt's presidential elections would be held before parliamentary polls. – Agencies
