Former Egyptian Finance Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has been named Egypt’s prime minister, as the country’s military moved to stabilize political chaos that began weeks ago when millions of anti-government protesters flooded into the streets demanding the ouster of the country’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked then-President Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt’s interim president on Tuesday named liberal economist and former finance minister Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister in a transitional government, as the authorities sought to steer the country to new parliamentary and presidential elections.

Acting head of state Adli Mansour also appointed former UN nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei as deputy to the president, responsible for foreign affairs.

Beblawi had criticized Morsi’s Islamist administration last month, blasting the group for failing to restore political legitimacy to the government and economic stability to the country:

Al Beblawi, who resigned from office after nearly four months, when Coptic Christians were killed by security forces in October 2011, pointed out that a part of Egypt’s crisis now is that the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power was based upon slogans such as “Islam is the Solution” which tapped the religious public motives. However, they are unable to convert their general ideas into specific political and economic programmes.

For their part, Brotherhood officials rejected a plan announced by the interim government aimed at putting Egypt on a fast track to amending the country’s controversial constitution, which had been hastily rushed through the Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly last year. The constitution was widely criticized for its heavy emphasis on Islamic law at the expense of religious and gender minorities.

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