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| Africa North |
| Egypt Presidential Hopeful Sabbahi Fears Return to Autocracy |
| 2014-02-25 |
| [An Nahar] Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said he fears a return to autocratic rule in Egypt, telling Agence La Belle France Presse that the army chief, a likely election frontrunner, has failed to dispel these concerns. Sabbahi, 59, who came third in the 2012 presidential election that Islamist Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... won, is seen by his supporters as a serious challenger, but Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is widely tipped to win the poll if he stands. The election, part of a road map outlined by Egypt's interim military-installed authorities for a return to democratic rule, is expected to be held by mid-April. While his chances of winning against Sisi are seen as slim, Sabbahi said in an interview with AFP that young members of his leftist Popular Current, which he founded in 2012, encouraged him to run for the presidency. Youths who took part in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... "feel that their revolution was being stolen... as their comrades were being tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! and some killed before their eyes". "Mubarak's men are now making a comeback," Sabbahi said, adding that Sisi "has not taken a position that could comfort the youths regarding the danger... which is the return to power of those who symbolized corruption under Mubarak". Sisi, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy, is the most popular public figure in Egypt after he led the ouster of Morsi in July following mass street protests against the Islamist's turbulent one-year rule. Sabbahi said his intention to run for the presidency was also driven by concerns that "this election would feature only one candidate (Sisi) and would turn into a referendum". Sabbahi expressed hope that youths who represented a "key voting" bloc would back him after many shunned the January referendum on a new constitution. He also criticized a law adopted by the interim authorities in November to ban all but police-sanctioned protests, saying it was a "political error" and urged interim president Adly Mansour to release all who were tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for participating in peaceful protests. The law "in its present form restricts more than it regulates," said Sabbahi. "The killers of Khaled Said are still to be sentenced, but the youths who demonstrated to demand that they be held accountable have been sentenced to jail," he said, referring to a blogger whose killing by police in 2010 became a symbol for the anti-Mubarak uprising. |
| Posted by:Fred |