(DNE File Photo / Hassan Ibrahim)
By Deena Wahba
The National Salvation Front (NSF), as well as the Al-Watan, Al-Wasat and Ghad Al-Thawra parties revealed their plans to create parallel parliaments and shadow governments.
Ahmed Hawary, NSF spokesperson, told Daily News Egypt “the formation of a parallel government is still a suggested idea” and that they have not come up with the final plan for this shadow government.
He added that the shadow government will have two roles: the first is a supervisory role, which means that when the regime does something wrong or fails to achieve something, the parallel government will state the right action that should be taken. The second is to be prepared in case an announcement of elections, parliamentary or presidential, was made.
“The point of creating a parallel government is not to embarrass anyone as the regime is already embarrassed because of its actions and policies,” Hawary said, adding the NSF, Egypt’s largest opposition bloc, will not ally with other Islamist parties.
Ghad Al-Thawra Party spokesperson Mohamed Mohy Al-Din said, “The party is planning on creating a shadow government; it’s a normal process in any democratic nation.” He explained that it will be the role of Ayman Nour, chairman of the party, to declare the members of the party. He also denied that the party will form its shadow government in alliance with any other party.
Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Amr Moussa told the Saudi Al-Hayat newspaper that the NSF is working on creating a “advisory” parliament that will include experts working on discussing and tackling different issues and coming up with results and certain programmes. “The idea [to form a shadow government] has been passing around the parties but it was not implemented on the ground,” he said.
Al-Watan Party Vice-President Dr Yousri Hammad declared that his party will also form a shadow government parallel to that of the current regime in a few days, which they called “The Hope Government”. Hammad told Al-Hayat that they “sent letters to all party leaders to nominate the most competent, and they will work on presenting solutions for current crises that [Prime Minister Hesham] Qandil’s government failed to solve”.
Hammad also stressed that “the decision for creating a parallel government is not a coup against the regime, but every party has its political aims, and the Muslim Brotherhood wants to take control of the political scene and the high positions in the state, and to exclude all other parties.”
