(AFP Photo)
The Ghad El-Thawra party decided on Sunday to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for 22 April. The Conference Party remains undecided, while the Strong Egypt Party will announce its decision on Tuesday.
Ghad El-Thawra announced their decision at a press conference at the party headquarters in Downtown Cairo on Sunday evening. During the conference, party head, Ayman Nour, asserted that the party is planning to win as many seats as possible, adding that he welcomes forming electoral coalitions with other political parties.
Nour said that boycotting elections would not resolve the current political crisis, and said his party is willing to work on the mistakes they made during elections for the previous parliament, which was dissolved on 14 June 2012. “We are an active party, and we will continue working in the street and go through elections with the support of the street,” he added.
Ghad El-Thawra is the only liberal political party participating in the state-sponsored national dialogue sessions called for by President Mohamed Morsi after he issued the constitutional declaration in November 2012.
The Conference Party, part of the National Salvation Front (NSF), did not officially announce that they would boycott the elections, despite the NSF decision to boycott.
The NSF decided on 26 February to boycott elections, which they say will be unconstitutional. Amr Moussa, Conference Party head and prominent NSF figure, issued a statement on the same day stating that the boycott is due to the government’s negligence of the NSF’s demands.
Yara Khallaf, a member of the Conference Party’s media committee, explained that Moussa’s current stance is to stick to the NSF’s decision and boycott elections. However, she said that an official decision had not yet been reached. Khallaf said the party will issue an official statement to announce the decision once it has been made.
Strong Egypt Party will hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce their decision regarding the parliamentary elections.
Mazen Essam, media coordinator of Strong Egypt Party, said the conference was originally scheduled for Monday but was postponed as the party members are still voting on whether or not to participate in the elections.
