Summary
The head of Egypt’s Central Auditing Organization, Hisham Geneina, denied reports that the Muslim Brotherhood
was supporting his candidacy in the presidential elections, while other
officials talked about the necessity of an electoral law to guarantee
fair elections, in light of a church mediation between Egypt and
Ethiopia on the Renaissance Dam issue.
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Orthodox Christians attend prayers
in preparation for Easter at St. George church in Addis Ababa, April 18,
2009. (photo by REUTERS/Irada Humbatova)
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In an exclusive interview with Azzaman,
Hisham Geneina, head of Egypt’s Central Auditing Organization, denied reports
that the Muslim Brotherhood would
support him in the presidential elections, and stressed that he was not
affiliated with any particular movement and he is not considering running for
president.
Hisham Kamal, a member of the
National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) and spokesman for the Salafist Call, denied
allegations that the alliance intends to support Geneina or any other political
figure, because it does not trust in the situation on the scene and is still
committed to acting on the basis of legitimacy.
On the news that the Brotherhood
might support Geneina in the upcoming presidential elections, Kamal said that
these were mere rumors that might have originated from the intelligence
services or the Ministry of Interior. He noted that there had been previous
attempts to impose conditions on the alliance for a so-called
reconciliation. Yet, he said, the alliance has refused to comply with these
conditions and would not accept any future reconciliation unless it
were based on legitimacy, and was accompanied by the trial of those who killed
peaceful demonstrators and the restoration of rights.
Additionally, political activists
have started to collect signatures supporting the candidacy of Geneina to
the post of president in several provinces. Maj. Gen. Adel al-Qala, head of the
Egyptian Arab Socialist Party, described the Brotherhood’s moves in this regard
as an attempt to confuse the political scene. On the other hand, sources tied
to the campaign of Field Marshal Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
revealed that Sisi would probably accept the invitation of the Orthodox Church
to attend the Mass celebrating the Resurrection on April 19, while sources tied
to the campaign of Hamdeen Sabahi said he would also accept the invitation of
the church to attend these celebrations. Observers in Cairo described that as
an attempt by the candidates to win the votes of Copts. Informed sources said
Sisi would more likely get the majority of votes of the Copts as a result of
his support for the June 30 Revolution. In the same context, a number of
political forces called for the adoption of an electoral code of conduct to
ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
George Isaac, a political activist,
said the climate that currently prevails in the country requires an electoral
code of conduct and the enforcement of the law to ensure integrity and
impartiality of the elections.
He added that the most prominent
article in this code of conduct should be to ban the use of the state’s
apparatuses to publicize a candidate at the expense of another. He stressed
that every citizen has the right to run in the elections without anyone delving
into the details of his personal life. Safwat el-Nahas, secretary-general of
the Egyptian Patriotic Movement, said it would be better if all candidates,
campaigns and supporters commit to the electoral code of conduct in terms of
publicity or any other electoral matter for the benefit of Egypt and for the
success of the electoral process. Amr Ali, a member of the Free Egyptians Party,
described the idea of the electoral code of conduct as mere ink on paper,
given the political atmosphere in the country and the prevailing turmoil, which
does not allow its implementation.
He pointed out that the application
of the electoral code of conduct would be possible after a high level of
political awareness was reached.
On another note, Patriarch Abune
Mathias of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church will arrive and spend five days in
Cairo late this month, at the invitation of Pope Tawadros II, pope of the
Coptic Orthodox Church, to visit the Egyptian church, after Mathias was elected
head of Ethiopia’s church.
Sources within the church told Azzaman
that Tawadros will try to persuade Mathias that the Ethiopian church
assume a role in resolving the crisis between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Renaissance Dam, given the
historical relations between the two churches. Tawadros will be asking the
patriarch for the church to exert pressure on the Ethiopian government to make
concessions to preserve the historical relations between the two peoples.
In the same context, a conference
titled “The Nile is a Cooperation not a Clash” was held on April 5 by the
Arab Healthy Water Association. During the conference, international water-law
experts offered an integrated vision of the dangers that would emanate from the
Renaissance Dam and the ways to prevent them.
Maghawri Shehata, an international
water expert and president of the conference, told Azzaman that the
experts taking part in the conference will clarify the reality of the water
situation, the water crises and shortages in Egypt’s share of the Nile's
waters.
Shehata noted that for the first
time, the conference would discuss the report of the tripartite technical
committee on the assessment of the environmental and technical impact of the
dam on the two downstream countries, and on the danger of Ethiopian plans to
build a series of dams on the security of Egypt's water. This issue will be
discussed by Mohamed Nasr Allam, former Minister of Water Resources and
Irrigation, in a working paper — which will be submitted to the conference — in
a technical and neutral way, so that facts will be clarified without
exaggeration or underestimation.
He added that in a study conducted
by Mufid Shehab, head of the Egyptian branch of the International Law
Association, the conference would present the legal aspects and the chronology
of the issue. He will also talk about how Egypt can apply its legal rights to
use the waters generated by the Renaissance Dam and to secure its share of
water in general, according to the documents, conventions and treaties that
Egypt has signed, and under the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International
Watercourses.
He noted that the conference would
be discussing a study on the political dimensions of Egypt’s water security
within the framework of Egypt's water policy in the Horn of Africa. The study
will be presented by Mohammad Salman Taya, a professor in the Faculty of
Economics and Political Science at Cairo University.
He added that the conference aims at
finding solutions to ensure a win-win situation — namely to ensure Ethiopia has
the power and Egypt the water — by developing a map that would allow the
upstream and downstream countries to reap the benefits of the Renaissance Dam.
He pointed out that the conference will prepare a report that consists of the
suggested solutions to the crisis of the Renaissance Dam and will submit it to
the relevant authorities and institutions, most notably the presidential and
governmental institutions.
On the other hand, the statements on
the Renaissance Dam issue and water crisis, which were made by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy and the
Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohammed Abdel Matlab, have sparked
angry reactions. National and political forces have demanded that the minister
of foreign affairs stop making statements such as the one in
which he revealed that Egypt was ready to take part in the financing of the
Renaissance Dam. Nader Noureddin, a professor of water resources and
agricultural land at the University of Cairo, described the statements made by
Fahmy that Egypt offered to finance the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as
catastrophic. Noureddin said that Fahmy’s statements are dangerous and wrong,
and his remarks are incomplete and unclear. They may be exploited in a bad way
by Ethiopia, since Ethiopia has refused Egyptian participation in
financing construction of the dam, which has a 14 billion cubic-meter capacity
and other specifications that guarantee the sharing of Nile water by Egypt
and Sudan.
In the meantime, political forces
condemned the statements of Matlab in which he said that the water reserve in
the Aswan Dam will serve Egypt for two more years. They stressed that these
statements would harm Egypt's negotiating position. Sovereign sources revealed
that high-level parties have asked Matlab to stop making such statements
without first referring to the intelligence services or the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, which are currently managing the Renaissance Dam file.
Source:
al-monitor.com
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