Al-Dostour Party youth ended their sit-in at the main headquarters Sunday night after party leader Mohamed ElBaradei agreed to meet them to discuss their demands.
In a statement on the party’s official Facebook page, the protesters said they had met with steering committee head Hossam Eissa and elections committee adviser Mostafa El-Gendy who told them ElBaradei would meet them soon to discuss their demands and make necessary decisions.
Over 120 youth members from the party had been staging a sit-in since 6 January to protest ElBaradei’s decisions to appoint new members to influential committees and his refusal to dismiss others.
The same group earlier demanded ElBaradei disband the steering committee and dismiss the secretary general and organisation secretary for their failure to adequately organise the party.
The Nobel laureate agreed that the general and organisation secretariats were performing inadequately but issued them a deadline to complete the tasks they had failed instead of dismissing them, thereby angering the youth group.
ElBaradei also did not disband the steering committee. He replaced its entire membership but that did not satisfy the protesters who were both opposed to the existence of a steering committee and the concept of appointments instead of elections.
The protesters demand the dissolution of the steering committee, replacement of the secretary general and organisation secretary, and the holding of internal elections. ElBaradei had announced internal elections would take place following the upcoming parliamentary elections, which the protesters said was too late.
There has been no date set for ElBaradei’s meeting with a delegation of the protesting members. They released several statements during their sit-in reaffirming their respect and admiration for him and denying the sit-in indicated a rift, instead saying it was an expression of the democratic ideals ElBaradei and the party stood for.
