By Tamim Elyan
CAIRO: People’s Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour reiterated Egypt’s rejection of foreign monitoring of the upcoming parliamentary elections, saying that it is a domestic issue and that foreign intervention would be considered an insult to national sovereignty.
“Foreign countries have no control over the elections because it is an internal affair,” Sorour said Sunday in a symposium entitled “Globalization Between Politics, Economy and Law,” organized by the Egyptian Association for Political Economy and Statistics.
“If [foreign countries] want to interfere, they will have to feed us first.”
Sorour added that Egypt’s refusal to allow foreign monitoring of the elections will not affect its diplomatic relations with western countries.
“There are local organizations that can perform this role very well, and are more trustworthy than any foreign entity,” Sorour said.
Local NOGs and human rights groups may be subjected to foreign influence because it would be easier for a foreign government to negotiate with an organization than to negotiate with the Egyptian government, he argued.
“It depends on the role such [NGOS and human rights groups] perform; they can help the state in many social issues, but if they give themselves more authority, they might constitute a threat to the sovereignty of the state [as well],” stated Sorour.
