REPORT: Egypt to hold presidential vote first - Mansour

Egypt will hold presidential elections before parliamentary polls, interim President Adly Mansour said on Sunday, a change to the political timetable that could see army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi elected as head of state within months.
   
Parliamentary elections were supposed to happen first under the road map agreed after the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July following mass protests against his rule.
 
This comes as four soldiers were killed and nine wounded when gunmen attacked a military bus that was traveling in the Sinai Peninsula, security sources said.
   
Sinai-based militants have stepped up violence against the state since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's ouster in July, and the attacks have become more brazen in recent months, spreading to Cairo and other cities.
 
This as the death toll from clashes during protests in Egypt on Saturday rose to 49, state-run Al-Ahram website quoted a health ministry official as saying on Sunday.
   
The fighting erupted on the third anniversary of the popular uprising which toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Security forces fought opponents of the army-backed government which replaced Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July.


REUTERS


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