Misr Al-Qawia Party, headed by former presidential candidate and moderate Islamist leader Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, made several comments regarding the ongoing floods crisis facing Egypt over the past week.
The party’s office in Gharbeya reported severe damages Sunday, caused by the storms and rains to agricultural lands, saying “thousands of acres are threatened by spoiled sewage networks, while vegetable crops have drowned, as the farmers are being completely neglected by the corrupt Ministries of Agriculture and Irrigation”.
The statement further shed light on the consequences the farmers will have to bear in the aftermath of the bad weather, demanding government compensation for them. “The party also requests immediate investigations into this negligence, and authorities must abstain from accepting the unjustifiable excuse that “there was too much rain”.
The party demanded the removal of local governors and heads of districts in a Saturday press statement, and said that the “president of the country and his government bear full responsibility for the lost lives and the damages of the floods”.
According to Misr Al-Qawia, the people in charge of handling the floods crisis “are incompetent, and have only been hired for vowing loyalty for the regime”, which is also the reason corruption is widespread in local municipalities and governorates’ executive bodies, according to the party.
This comes as President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi visited Alexandria Sunday, the governorate most affected by the floods. “An extremely late visit by the president,” commented party spokesperson Ahmed Imam.
“Even though Al-Sisi was in the UK, the crisis began before that and he himself mentioned it before travelling, when he was unhappy about media criticism he received for not visiting Alexandria,” Imam told Daily News Egypt Sunday.
Imam said the party believes the constant dependence on the military institution in all aspects of civil and political life is problematic and does not lead to “having the right man in the right place”.
“The army already has a heavy security load, namely with the latest Russian plane crash in South Sinai,” Imam noted, saying it was “a military task to handle natural disasters by sending vehicles to pump out the flooded water for instance, but that there is a difference between ordinary military missions and its interference in other issues, such as the sewage system, food goods, and so on.”
“All I am saying is that there are civil engineers who studied sewage systems and they are supposed to be the experts working on such projects,” he continued.
Asked about the party’s demand to dismiss governors, the same way the Alexandria governor was let go, Imam said dismissing officials differs from holding them accountable.
The Misr Al-Qawia Party has boycotted parliamentary elections and still defends its position, as Imam said the party had no chances of winning “due to a different state will”. As such, Imam pointed out that the upcoming parliament will not be able to trigger change if high state authorities continue to “fail to understand that politics are important to managing the country”.
