By Essam Fadl
CAIRO: Political dissident and founder of Al-Ghad Party Ayman Nour said he’ll circumvent the government’s refusal to allow foreign monitors to oversee the parliamentary elections by inviting European officials for a conference to take place before Nov. 28, election day.
Nour said that he is attempting to attract European officials capable of overseeing Egypt’s parliamentary elections after Egypt turned down the European Union’s (EU) request to do so.
Nour told Daily News Egypt on Monday that his recent visit to the EU headquarters and the European Parliament in Brussels resulted in an agreement with various European officials to oversee the elections.
“Generally, during my meetings with officials of the EU and the European Parliament, I noticed [that the officials typically] oversee elections [in order to] closely monitor whether or not the government’s elections are transparent — regardless of [the said government’s] unfriendliness regarding the EU’s presence in their elections in the first place,” said Nour.
“Some European officials showed readiness to launch personal initiatives to closely oversee the elections,” he claimed.
Nour stated that he discussed with officials the need to establish an Egyptian-European partnership that enables the EU to analyze human rights, democracy and election transparency in Egypt.
“The only solution would be to organize a conference by Al-Ghad Party about the elections [prior to Nov. 28] and to invite European officials with their parliamentary posts to attend the conference,” Nour stated. “They will attend as if their presence in Cairo has no relation with the elections process, and at the same time they can oversee the elections.”
Nour also warned of “the effects of the government’s refusal to allow international organizations to oversee elections.”
“This will lead to questioning the results of the elections and the legitimacy of the parliament,” he said.
He also claimed that Europeans have showed a deep resentment over Egypt’s refusal.
“Europeans asked me about the reasons behind the boycotting of elections by the National Association of Change, Al-Ghad, the Democratic Front Party, and other political movements, and I told them that [we are boycotting] elections because of the lack of guarantees of election transparency,” Nour stated.
“I also said that me, Dr. [Mohamed] ElBaradie and Hamadeen Sabahy face legal and constitutional constraints [that prevent us from running against President Hosni] Mubarak or [his son Gamal Mubarak] in the coming presidential elections.”
