Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour holds national dialogue meetings to discuss the details of Egypt’s transitional roadmap

Adly Mansour, Egypt's interim President
(image: Cairo Scene)

Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour, appointed for this position after Egypt’s Army ousted Islamist backed President Mohamed Morsy on 3 July, has initiated national dialogue meetings to be attended by the representatives of different political forces of the country, youth representatives, intellectuals, civil organizations and public figures as well.

National dialog is aimed to discuss the further steps in the framework of the transitional roadmap introduced by Egyptian Armed Forces after Morsy’s ouster.

Egypt’s 50-member Constitutional Committee has presented finalized draft of the Constitution to the interim President Adly Mansour, and the date for the national referendum for the Constitution was set for 14-15 January 2014. If the Constitution will be approved by the referendum, the country should have parliamentary and presidential elections in order to fulfill the transitional roadmap designed for building democratic and civil country. But according to the Constitution the date for the presidential and parliamentary elections aren’t specified and it isn’t clearly mentioned, what elections should go first, thus, according to the transitional plan, Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour should take the final decision on whether the presidential or parliamentary elections will be held first.

In addition to that Adly Mansour has also to define the electoral system for the parliamentary elections as well.

Thus Adly Mansour will take these decisions after the meetings with representative of different political powers of the country and representatives of different layers of society as well in order to take the decisions which would serve the aims and demands of the revolution and will express the will of Egyptian people. This is expected to be achieved through the national dialogue.

Adly Mansour has already met on Thursday, 19 December, with the representatives of Egypt’s youth organizations and groups. On Sunday Egypt’s interim President has held a meeting with prominent political and public figures. The meetings in the frameworks of the national dialogue are ongoing.

The session of national dialogue held by Adly Mansour
(Image: The Daily News Egypt)

During the Sunday meeting the attendees have been discussing the issue of elections, and the majority of the participants have voted in favor of the presidential elections to be held first.

As for the parliamentary system, 53 participants of the national dialogue have voted for the mixed system to be imposed in Egypt’s Parliament and during the elections, while 23 members have voted for individual candidacy system and 6 persons voted for the party lists.

Many political and public figures have praised Adly Mansour for the decision to hold national dialogue meeting with the representatives of different political powers of the country and representatives of all the layers of society, stressing that he showed himself as a good leader with the excellent managerial skills, while others, including April 6 Movement, Egyptian Current, Revolutionary Socialists and some other forces, strongly criticizing Adly Mansour and calling the national dialogue, initiated by him, as a meeting of “yes-men”, where nobody opposes the views of the interim President and Armed Forces, and comparing Mansour’s current attitudes to the ones of his predecessor Mohamed Morsy.