Egypt’s opposition is expected to attend the National Dialog initiated by Mohamed Morsy

Leaders of Egypt's National Salvation Front: Hamdeen Sabbahy,
Mohamed El Baradei, Amr Moussa

According to the statement of Mahmoud Mekki, former Vice-President, Egyptian oppositional forces together with its umbrella organization National Salvation Front are expected to participate in the next National Dialog talks initiated by Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy and scheduled for 9 January 2013.

National Dialog talks to be held on 9 January will be the seventh attempt of Egypt’s President to gather all political factions of the country around the negotiations’ table to discuss the most controversial issues of Egyptian current policy and to find the solution of the political crisis. 

Egypt’s President has initiated the talks called National Dialog after the deepening of the political crisis in the country caused by President’s controversial decree and also draft of the Constitution and the Constitution’s referendum. All the political forces of Egypt have been invited to participate in the talks, but Egypt’s opposition used to boycott the negotiations claiming they will not hold any talks with the regime until their demands will not be met. So the previous talks failed and were attended mostly by Islamist forces, and the consensus hasn't been found.

On Wednesday, 2 January 2013, Mahmoud Mekki has confirmed that the opposition’s members announced their participations in the next talks aimed to discuss the controversial aspects of the Constitution and the election’s law and changes in it.

Seven members of NSF will take part in the negotiation, but their names aren’t officially revealed yet.

Mahmoud Mekkim Egypt's former Vice-President

During Tuesday’s meeting of the National Dialog’s representatives Mr. Mekki stated that the last meeting was very difficult due to the discussed issues, such as the parliamentary election’s law. The changes imposed on this law have been strongly criticized by many oppositional figures claiming the new draft of the parliamentary election’s law is too similar to the previous one and that the demands of the opposition to criminalize using of houses of worship in the election’s campaigns haven’t been met too.

Mr.Mekki though stated that the 9 January National Dialog should gather all the political powers for discussions of the parliamentary election’s law and making some amendments to it. According to the statement of Mr.Mekki, the Head of National Dialog’s legal committee Mohamed Selim Al-Awwa has said that the draft of the election’s law has been already sent to the President. Mohamed Morsy is expected to pass the law to Shura Council (Upper House of Egypt’s parliament) where it will be approved and ratified.

It’s worth mentioning that despite having the legislative authorities Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy decided not to approve the law directly but sent it to Shura Council for discussions to give the chance to Egypt’s political forces including opposition to discuss it and all its details and to find the common solution to the current political crisis in the country.