The National Salvation Front (NSF) denied Tuesday that it would be attending the fifth “national dialogue” meeting organised by President Mohamed Morsy.
“We have not even received invitations but even if we did, the situation remains the same,” NSF spokesperson Khaled Dawoud said.
Wasat Party Chairman and national dialogue committee member Abo El-Ela Mady told Turkish news agency Anadol that there would be two national dialogue sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and that members of the NSF would attend the Wednesday session.
“If you look at his statement, you will find that he said members of NSF would attend, not NSF itself. I don’t know actually if anyone is going but if they do, it would be on a personal basis; they would not be representing NSF,” Dawoud explained.
Mady said the meetings would discuss the parliamentary elections law, by which the upcoming House of Representatives elections would abide, the controversial or debatable articles within the constitution.
Vice President Mahmoud Mekki will attend and chair the meeting, said presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali.
Mekki resigned on Saturday but President Mohamed Morsy has yet to respond to the resignation. The new constitution does not include the position of vice president.
Four national dialogue sessions have been held so far, including the 8 December session where Morsy annulled his 22 November constitutional decree. The NSF, Egypt’s largest opposition bloc, has boycotted them.
The sessions have mostly been attended by members of the Wasat Party, largely seen as allies of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, as well as independent Islamist figures such as former presidential candidate Mohamed Salim Al-Awa.
NSF coordinator and Dostour Party Chairman Mohamed ElBaradei previously said the opposition would not sit down with Morsy until there was a clear agenda for the meeting.
