The Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue in Egypt announced on Sunday that it had submitted a proposal to resume the dialogue sessions on 3 May. The National Dialogue was called for by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in April 2021, during the “Egyptian Family” iftar (fast breaking) event during Ramadan.
In a statement, the Board of Trustees said that it asked President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to keep the full judicial supervision of public elections and referendums, as it was scheduled to end on 17 January 2024, as stipulated in the 2014 Constitution.
The Board of Trustees said in its statement that it “continues to complete efforts to provide elements of a positive climate and affirms its full confidence in the keenness of all parties to do so.”
According to the statement, the Board will continue its permanent session until the aforementioned date, and exercise its role during this period to complete the availability of all elements of a positive atmosphere, which guarantees the start and successful continuation of the dialogue.
“The Board of Trustees expresses its full confidence in everyone’s keenness to provide all the elements of this positive atmosphere, in a way that befits the Egyptian people and their hopes pinned on inviting the President of the Republic to dialogue on the priorities of national action during the current stage, and to submit the results of this dialogue to His Excellency personally, to take the necessary measures.” related to legal legislation or executive procedures,” the statement read.
The statement added that “both the Board of Trustees and the Technical Secretariat will continue during this period to receive names and proposals from the various forces participating in the dialogue, to put them in the appropriate dialogue sessions for them, and they will also contact all the personalities participating in the sessions to inform them of the detailed dates for their sessions and their agendas.”
Moreover, based on the dialogue bylaws, the Board of Trustees decided to use its powers, as well as its expression of the various forces participating in the dialogue, to submit a draft law proposal to the President of the Republic to consider presenting it to parliament for discussion.
“This proposal expresses a complete consensus among all parties to the national dialogue and is related to a legislative amendment in the National Elections Authority Law that enters into the text of Article (34) that requires the completion of polling and counting, in elections and referendums taking place in the country, under the full supervision of the members of the judicial authorities and bodies,” according to the statement.
