Cairo: Top parties in Egypt's incoming Parliament have agreed to select an Islamist politician as house speaker for the first time in decades, party leaders said on Monday. The Muslim Brotherhood, the big winner in the first election since the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak last February, said it joined several other parties in backing Saad el-Katatni, the secretary-general of the Brotherhood's own party.
The main function of the new Parliament is to pick a 100-person commission to draw up a new Constitution for Egypt, while preparations take place for presidential elections scheduled for June.
The selection of el-Katatni showed the power of the Islamists to influence that process. The Muslim Brotherhood-led alliance won more than 45 per cent of the 498 Parliament seats. A more radical Islamist movement won another 25 per cent.
The two are not seen likely to join forces on many issues because of their religious differences.
The Brotherhood leaders met with heads of other parties on Monday to try to reach wide agreement over the choice of a speaker.
Mohammed Morsi, the Brotherhood party's leader, said the meeting was meant to give assurances that there would be no "exclusions, no polarisation and no conflict. Instead there will be national consensus" in Parliament.
Mohammed Abouel Ghar, head of secular Egyptian Social Democratic Party, which emerged from the popular uprising, said, "We agreed to have consensus on selection of the heads of subcommittees. Even the small parties and those with only one seat will not be excluded."
Parties like his that represent reformers and activists at the centre of the movement that toppled Mubarak failed to parlay that success into voting strength, splitting into several factions and winning less than a quarter of the seats in Parliament.
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