By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Former assistant foreign minister and current professor of international law and political science at the American University of Cairo, Abdallah Al-Ashaal announced on Wednesday that he was in the process of forming a new political party called “The Free Egypt.”
“The former regime didn’t have any intentions to circulate power which made it impossible to form real opposition parties,” Al-Ashaal said in an interview with Daily News Egypt. “Now the door is open.”
Al-Ashaal said that his party would be officially announced at a press conference next Wednesday, adding that it will not include any figures from the former corrupt regime or public figures.
“The public figures have already been exposed for what they are,” Al-Ashaal said. “I want to include people who have been working behind the scenes [for the good of this country] and give them a chance to work in public.”
Al-Ashaal said that the party’s objectives would be to “clean up” Egyptian society from the corrupt figures of the former regime and help establish a modern state in Egypt based on real democracy, transparency and equality among all Egyptians in different aspects of life.
“We want to translate the aspirations of the Egyptian revolution into [actions on the ground],” he said.
Al-Ashaal stressed that his party would be based on democratic rules not “patriarchal rules” like the existing parties.
“The existing parties were just arms of the [former corrupt] regime,” Al-Ashaal said. “All these parties must be eliminated and new parties [representing] the revolution should be formed instead.”
He said that his party would compete in the coming parliamentary elections and expressed his desire to run as a presidential candidate in September 2011.
“I have experience, education, a clean record and I have zeal to serve my society,” he said.
“My intentions won’t be to succeed in the coming presidential elections but to enlighten the people on how to engage in free and fair elections and show them how capable and how far they can go in this process,” Al-Ashaal said.
Al-Ashaal believed that a presidential candidate needs to have certain qualities including being a resident in Egypt for at least the last 10 years in order to be fully aware of society’s problems and aspirations.
This point rules out former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei who has been widely criticized for his extensive travels outside of Egypt and has been accused of being detached from the Egyptian people’s day to day lives.
A presidential candidate should have also participated in overthrowing the regime and supported the Egyptian people in their revolution, according to Al-Ashaal.
“The Jan 25 uprising is the main trigger for the revolution, but I have a long heritage in [speaking out] against the regime and calling for change long before then.” Al-Ashaal said.
Al-Ashaal, 66, said he resigned from his position as an assistant to the foreign minister in 2003 in objection to the American invasion of Iraq and the appalling role played by Egypt in collaborating with the United States.
