Egypt's National Dialogue General Coordinator Diaa Rashwan and Secretary-General Mahmoud Fawzy attend a meeting with foreign and Arab correspondents on Wednesday.
During an extended meeting with foreign and Arab correspondents, Rashwan indicated that the National Dialogue is not an alternative to state institutions – like the parliament or the government – and it cannot dictate what state institutions ought to do.
“The dialogue will propose legislations or executive decisions which will be submitted to the president to take the necessary actions, whether by presenting them to the House of Representatives, or by issuing executive decisions in their regard,” Rashwan said.
Among the correspondents who attended the three-hour meeting were those of Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
No red lines
According to the dialogue bylaws, all outcomes – whether reached by consensus or not – will be submitted to the president, without using a voting mechanism and, therefore, there will be no majority or minority in all discussions within the national dialogue.
“There are no red lines for the views, discussions or issues that will be presented by all participants in the National Dialogue,” the general coordinator said.
The long-awaited National Dialogue kicked off on 3 May with several political forces, civil society groups, professional and labour unions, and public figures participating to discuss key political, economic, and social issues.
No timeline
The general coordinator stated that “there is no specific timeline for the National Dialogue,” stressing that the process will proceed until discussions on various tracks are finalized.
The timeline depends on the participants in the dialogue themselves. Proposals will be submitted to the president once an agreement is reached an any one issue, he said.
Rashwan cited the example of sending a proposal to the president for full judicial supervision of the general elections in Egypt.
In March, the Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue called for the renewal of the 10-year legislation which regulates the work of the National Election Authority in order to renew judicial supervision over all elections and referendums — set to expire in January 2024.
In response, El-Sisi directed the government to study the proposal made by the board of trustees to renew legislation that stipulates full judicial supervision over elections and referendums.
Pre-trial detention
The general coordinator explained that political forces sent a list of over 1,000 pretrial detainees to be considered by the prosecution for release after the president's call for dialogue in April 2022.
“Since then, more than 1,400 pre-trial detainees have been released, and 17 others who have been sentenced have received presidential pardons,” Rashwan said. He added that now some of those who were released from prisons actively participate in the dialogue and contribute to building bridges of communication between various political forces.
Rashwan previously said that only a few of its members of the Civil Democratic Movement — a bloc including 12 opposition parties and groups — remain in prison, with the exception of one or two including activist Ahmed Douma.
On the eve of the inauguration of the dialogue, the general coordinator stressed that the issue of pre-trial detention would be uppermost in the human rights discussions’ agenda during the dialogue’s sessions.
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