Mohamed Abdel-Baky interviews presidential candidate and gauges views for and against him , a Nasserist and former member of the People's Assembly, believes that this is his moment, and the Egyptians want the coming president to be one of them, someone who could understand what living in "poverty and repression" means. What makes your platform different from other candidates'? I represent the 25 January Revolution which called for "bread, freedom and social justice", and have designed my platform to achieve these goals with the help of hundreds of political scientists and economists. As an activist I suffered for decades under the repression of the Mubarak and Sadat regimes. I also suffered as a poor citizen. I understand how Egyptians feel. I know what they need and how to fulfill their needs. Are claims that you will make the Egyptian economy one of the top 20 economies within eight years realistic? I know that the Egyptian economy is at its worst. But Egypt has natural resources that we do not use, including solar and wind energy which could replace oil and gas as a source of energy. Revenues from the Suez Canal could also be increased from $6 to $40 billion in four years if we focus on developing the Suez Canal area and providing comprehensive maritime services for ships in transit. There is a lot we can do to improve the economy in a short time, though to do so requires political will. But won't corruption hamper any attempts to boost the economy? I have a package of measures designed to tackle corruption. They include new laws as well as paying public employees decent salaries, making them less likely to extort bribes. I will also empower the agencies that are supposed to monitor the performance government employees and punish anybody involved in corruption. I believe that the president must be clean. He must be a role model for the rest of the nation. What should the role of the military be after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) hands over the power to the president? It is the constitution that determines the role of the army. I would be in favour of retaining the provisions of the 1971 constitution regarding the Armed Forces. I believe that Egypt's army should be the strongest in the region, well equipped and well trained and confident. Its most important role is protecting Egypt's sovereignty. Do you think the generals should be held accountable for their actions during the interim period? SCAF has mismanaged the transitional period. Many Egyptians were killed in the last 18 months. Those responsible for the loss of life and limb must be brought to justice. I am for a fair rather than safe exit for the army. How do you see the relationship between the president and a Muslim Brotherhood controlled parliament? The Muslim Brotherhood, like any other political group, came to the parliament through fair elections, and they might win or lose the coming election. The new constitution should define the role and powers for both the president and the parliament and there will not be any problem as long as everybody sticks to the democratic process and the constitution. I urge the Muslim Brotherhood to withdraw their candidate and announce their support to one of the candidates that came from Tahrir square, controlling the parliament, presidency and the government will not be in their favour, it is time for them to take the side of the revolutionary forces. Why do you think you have a chance to win this election? Giving the current situation, I believe that all the current candidates have equal chances, I think that Egyptians are capable to evaluate my chances against my competitors in these elections. You have been outspoken on criticising the Camp David Accord and Egypt's relation with Israel, what do you think the coming president should do about this issue? If I become president the abrogation of Camp David is not going to be my priority, for I must fight poverty and backwardness inside Egypt before looking into other matters. I believe that Camp David accord has shackled Egypt and undermined its status. However, I will respect any peace treaty that Egypt signed in the past. In the same time, the West must understand that the international law gives all the countries the right to amend or even cancel peace treaties to serve the best of their interest and I will not change the treaty or cancel it unless the people said so in a referendum and get the approval of the parliament. Egypt also has no obligation to export gas to Israel while the Palestinians are suffering from fuel shortage in Gaza. Don't you think that would risk Egypt's relation with the United States? I think that the US should respect the decision any Egyptian president might take to protect the interest of his own country. We will not be followers to anybody. Nevertheless, Egypt's relation with Western governments and US administrations will differ according to our interests under an Egyptian foreign policy that will revive Egypt and raise its international status, we will not be the only one who does that, Turkey, Brazil and India have been doing that in the last decade. What about the USAID to Egypt? Any international aid to Egypt is welcome as long as it is not conditioned. I believe also that any decision related to such important matter will be taken after dialogue between me and the Egyptian people and after an the approval of the parliament, there is a democratic process that we should respect. Candidate refurbished Candidate faces many challenges on his way to the presidency enters the coming presidential election with four decades of anti-regimes activism under his belt. Critics, however, note that he has limited governance experience. Born in 1954 in the Delta governorate of Kafr Al-Sheikh, Sabahi studied mass communication at Cairo University and graduated with honour degree. Sabahi started his activism when he was a university student. With a group of friends, he founded the Nasserist club. He enjoyed a wide popularity among his colleagues who elected him president of the university's Student Union. His name came up in newspaper headline in 1977, when he openly expressed his disapproval of former president Anwar El-Sadat's policies during an aired meeting with Cairo university students. At the time, he criticised Sadat's Infitah (Open-Door Policy), which he said only favoured the capitalists and those who were already well off. He also criticised Sadat's plans to make peace with Israel, while Palestinians remained without a home and devoid of representation. "If the terms we have to accept in order for this land to be returned include recognising the Zionist entity," Sabahi argued, "this would be a mistake". Because of this confrontation, Sabahi was banned from working as an assistant teacher in Cairo University or a journalist in the state media. In 1996, Sabahi founded the Arab Nasserist Karama Party, after his membership in Nasserist party due to internal conflict between the party leaders. He was elected twice to the People's Assembly in 2000 and 2005. Sabahi was jailed several times over the course of his political career. One of these arrests was under Sadat in 1981 along with 1,500 politicians, intellectuals and activists in what was a major crackdown on opposition from across the political spectrum. Sabahi was again arrested in 1997, under the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak, after being charged with inciting agricultural workers to protest against the government. Sabahi's wife, Siham Negm, also a long-time Nasserist, currently serves as head of the Women and Society Association, an NGO, as well as secretary-general of the Arab Network for Literacy and Adult Education. Sabahi has two children: Salma, a television presenter and singer and Mohamed who works as filmmaker. The veteran Nasserist officially announced his presidential bid in March 2011, choosing to run on an independent ticket and not through the Karama Party, which he established. He did not run in the past parliamentary elections, in order to focus on the presidential contest. According the polls that were conducted over the last 18 months, Sabahi has never been in the top three candidates. His best time was in April in a poll run in by Al-Ahram Centre for Political Strategic Studies (ACPS), which Sabahi came in the fourth, while Amr Moussa took the first place, followed by Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Ahmed Shafik. After the excluding of the 10 candidates from the race few weeks ago, Sabahi tried to seize the opportunity, by calling on all the "revolutionary candidates" to unite and form a presidential team. According to a senior member in Sabahi campaign, the negotiations failed after both Sabahi and Abul-Fotouh refused to take the vice president seat and give up the presidency. Sabahi's record of spending more than 45 years of his life defending the democratic and human rights values and with non-involvement in corruption is mainly his credential, said Ammar Ali Hassan, a political expert. "The best thing about Sabahi that he has never changed his political positions in the past 45 years, he is genuine revolutionary candidate that is needed for Egypt at this stage," Hassan said. He added that he has never agreed to hold any deal with Mubarak regime unlike many other opposition figures in his generation. "He has been living in the same apartment since he got married in the eighties, with the same furniture," Hassan said. Sabahi mainly relies in his campaign platform on promises to implement a social welfare programs, starting by increase the minimum wage to LE1,200 per month, he plan to cover that increase by imposing a 10 % taxes on Egyptians how have than LE50 million. Despite his promises to convert the economy from capitalism to state run economy (welfare economy), he has not been considered as candidate for the leftists party including the Tagammu and Socialist Popular Alliance Party, which choose to support other candidates like judge Hisham El-Bastawisi and Khaled Ali. "Youth movement and leftists' parties have many questions about Sabahi's policies with Muslim Brotherhood and SCAF over the last 18 months," said Dina Samak, a leftist activist. Some activists are critical of his hesitancy to criticise the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He came under the fire of youth movements after he attended a meeting with the military council after the Friday of Cleansing 26 February 2011, when military police used force to evacuate Tahrir Square from hundreds of protesters. To gain the youth groups' support back, Sabahi recently adopted a hard tone in talking about the SCAF. In March, he said that he refused a "safe exit" for the military council generals and insisted that they should be held accountable for the deaths of protesters during the waves of violence throughout last year. "The fact that it has mismanaged the transitional period and that many were killed and wounded while it was in charge must be addressed. Those responsible for the loss of life and limb must be brought to justice, there is no something called safe exit for the SCAF in my dictionary." In February, Sabahi joined a protest organised by Ultras football fans demanding justice for those killed in the 1 February Port Said football massacre chanting with them "down with military rule". His party alliance with Muslim Brotherhood party, Freedom and Justice, in the last parliamentary election has also drawn criticism from the leftists and liberal forces. While he played a major role in managing his party, he has never run a large corporation organisation or a governmental post, that make some experts have doubts about his leadership skill in running a huge country like Egypt. Kamal Khalil, a labour activist, argues that Sabahi has long experience of the political system in Egypt and has been a parliament member for three times which enough to make him a good president. "The president of the United States is a congressman, so could not have a president coming from the parliament," Khalil added. Gamal Abdel-Gawad believes that Sabahi's electoral prospects may be at risk due to the presence of other three leftist presidential candidates. "Leftist where Sabahi comes from are divided between three candidates, and many liberals may vote for the liberal Abul-Fotouh," he said. He added that the race map is changing every day but most of the indicators show that Sabahi will not have a strong chance to win or even to enter the run off, comparing to Abul-Fotouh and Moussa. Running on a platform based on the Nasserist ideology which belongs to the modern Egyptian regimes that is controlled by the military could be a challenge for Sabahi. "Being a Nasserist is no longer a direct way to win the heart and mind of the people, I do not think Egyptians under 40 years old would elect him," said Samak. She added that Sabahi's platform does not provide a clear vision for a better future; instead, it only answers some the questions that used to be asked in the past. "I would uphold Nasser's principles on social justice while pushing for a completely democratic system that clearly defines and limits the role of the president, which Nasser did not do," Sabahi said. Fundraising is one of challenges that Sabahi faces. He said that his campaign is among the poorest in the race. He added that he is depending on the donation of ordinary citizens.
