Decision to join the race I took this decision after much thought. I was inspired by the energy and support of the young people who made the 25 January and 30 June possible and who have their eyes on the future of this country, want to see a true presidential race and who were looking for a presidential candidate who could help deliver their dreams. I am honoured to be able to stand as a presidential candidate… I do this as someone who has been involved in politics for forty years, who comes from the heart of the middle class of this country. I have held political positions for four decades and for some of them I have been sent to jail … I was with the students' movement [of the 1970s] which expressed clear opposition to earlier regimes … including those removed by the revolution of 25 January and its subsequent wave of 30 June. There are many great men and women in this country who could live up to the challenge ahead. It is the wish of the Egyptian people, as I see it, to have as president a citizen who lived all his life with the ordinary people, who has shared their pain and their hopes and dreams and who knows firsthand of their fears and worries, someone who can be trusted to work to make the dreams come true and the fears go away. The people want a president who comes from their ranks and who they trust will work in line with their will, bow to their command… someone who has worked and interacted with all the political forces and who has strong ties with civil society. I have great faith in the ability of this nation to make a breakthrough… and in the last few months I have secured more support than I might have expected… People are not satisfied with the way things have been run following Mohamed Morsi's ouster. This dissatisfaction is not serving the interest of anyone associated, directly or indirectly, with the ruling authorities.
Vision for the future Egypt deserves much more than it has been offered. I am confident that Egyptians, all Egyptians, have the will to work and spare Egypt the backwardness that has been imposed on it and the evils of poverty. Together we can work for a better future, a more prosperous and dignified life… this is what we deserve and this is what the great Egyptian people demanded when they took to the streets on 25 January and 30 June… Bread, Freedom and Social Justice are the demands that people made and they are the demands that I want to work to deliver… I am willing to do everything in my power to give Egyptians what they truly deserve. In the last three years people have taken to the street many times to express what they want and what they reject. They took to the streets on 25 January in a revolution that was [later] hijacked [by the Muslim Brotherhood] and they took to the streets on 30 June to recapture their revolution. Today the great Egyptian people want to see their hopes delivered and the sacrifices they made and the memory of the martyrs who fell in these revolutions honoured. They want a democratic country where they can live free from fear of want and fear of being unfairly persecuted… they want to have the upper hand in deciding their future and this is what I want to work for… it is the will of the people that I want to deliver and it is the demands of the revolution I will pursue… I want to take the demands expressed in demonstrations and turn them into policies that are fulfilled by state institutions. These institutions require drastic reform if they are going to be able to deliver the aspirations expressed on 25 January and 30 June when the people demanded a democratic civil state in which they can live with dignity.. away from autocracy and corruption. My programme is based on legitimate dreams… it starts at the very heart of the problem… the failure of the state to live up to, and bow before, the demands of the people… Reform of state institutions is central to my programme… and when I talk of state institutions' reform I am not just talking of police reform, an essential demand of the young, but of municipal administration, education and health services. This reform will be designed to make state bodies as efficient and as successful as the armed forces, to get them to work to serve the nation rather than leave a single institution, the army, overburdened. Reform of state institution has to mean an end to corruption which is one of our most endemic problems, the root of the worst of all evils, poverty. My programme constitutes a war on corruption and on poverty… it is war that starts with the reform of state institutions and with the reform legislation engenders corruption. When I say I want to reform and strengthen state institutions I am in fact saying that I want the country to stand on its feet rather than be dependent on a single person… a country that is dependent on one person, no matter how honourable he is, is not a democratic country… the whole point of the 25 January and 30 June was to end this dependency on a single person or a single group. To reform state institutions should not be perceived an attempt to marginalise the role or rights of any particular body. When we talk of police reform we are talking about a plan designed with the contribution of members of the police. We are also talking about a scheme to accommodate the legitimate demands of policemen who have been working very hard. Hostility between the people and police came to an end on 30 June… but this reconciliation is being compromised. We want to keep good relations by making sure that the police act promptly, fully implementing the law without committing violations or having to put up with uncalled for challenges that arise as a result of the failure of other state bodies to perform as they should. The same applies to the judiciary… my programme is very clear about the independence of the judiciary. Whatever concerns we have about the judiciary will be attended to, essentially, by members of the judiciary. To make their task easier I ensure, conditional on the will of parliament, that legislation is going in the right direction to spare the judges from being forced to apply unfair laws. Alongside institutional reform comes the equally neglected file of human development. Egyptian citizens deserve decent housing, education and health care and legal rights that are fully observed … I am talking about working to improve the quality of life for all Egyptians… with none of the gender, religious, geographic or ethnic based discrimination that we have seen for decades.
On Nasser There is much inspiration to be found in the way Gamal Abdel-Nasser allied himself with the majority of citizens … I am not arguing for a carbon copy of what Nasser did, nor is it possible to replicate what happened decades ago… but yes, we can be inspired, not least to ensure that the future of Egypt is decided by the majority of Egyptians, the poor and the middle classes, and not a handful of rich ones. Why, for example, should the poor shoulder the same cuts to energy subsidies as the rich when they receive a third of the subsidies with two thirds going to the wealthy?
Freedoms and liberties Liberty, freedom and human rights lie at the heart of my programme, we must never forget that the millions who took to the streets on 25 January and 30 June were calling for freedom… There is no excuse to undermine the people's freedom and there is no excuse to violate their human rights Freedom of faith, freedom of movement, freedom of political association and freedom to protest are sacrosanct. These liberties are incorporated in the constitution we passed a few months ago Any law that overlooks these freedoms or allows for the violation of human rights would have to be judged unconstitutional… the law on demonstrations undermines the right to protest peacefully which is why I said it was unconstitutional. I feel for the judges who have to imprison peaceful demonstrators because of this law. If elected I will work to amend this unconstitutional law… this is one of the things that needs the immediate attention of the newly elected president. It is unacceptable, as well as unconstitutional, for thousands of innocent demonstrators, including peaceful university students, to be thrown in jail. I would otherwise refrain, as president, from issuing any laws, except in absolute cases of emergency, in the period between my election and that of parliament … We have to keep the faith of the young. They started the 25 January and 30 June Revolutions. It was the young who made the impossible a reality and we cannot turn our backs on them. They are not just the majority of our population but the source of its energy and inspiration… I have great faith in the young. I am counting on them. I refuse any comparison between a presidential amnesty for university students who demonstrated peacefully on campus to protest the killing of colleagues during peaceful demonstrations and Morsi's amnesty for terrorists. It is an unacceptable comparison
The Muslim Brotherhood, terror and violence I stood openly against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. I worked through the National Salvation Front, the Public Current and youth movements to start the momentum that allowed for the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood following the demonstrations of 30 June. As such I am shocked at the spreading of rumours that I have the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. I was the only politician banned from appearing on air during their rule. When I was saying that president Morsi had lost his moral and public legitimacy those working in the ranks of state bodies were bowing to or saluting him… this includes the chief of the army… and it is understandable because these people are bound by the regulations of the state institutions they work for. It was the people, and the wider national movement with its leaders and young members, that took to the streets to demand the end of Muslim Brotherhood rule. I supported the dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins but I have to say that the causalities in Rabaa were far too high… certainly compared to the dispersal of Al-Nahda … I think the security performance was lacking. I do not support any reconciliation with terror but I am also opposed to collective punishment… all those who are [fairly] indicted should be punished on a strict legal basis but we cannot allow the law to be violated.
The army and the people A basic point, stipulated in the constitution, is that the people own the army… it is not the other way round We have a patriotic army on the two occasions of 25 January and 30 June sided with the people… there is no denying to this. There is also no denying that it was the people who took the risk first… it was the people who acted and who decided to act… In the story of 25 January and 30 June the people played the role of the hero and the army played a supporting role. The fact that the army decided to bow to the will of the people does not mean that the people should be governed by the people or that they owe the army anything. The people cannot come second to the army. The people come first because they have to. I cannot accept or tolerate any confrontation between the people and army, not under any conditions. Keeping the army away from politics is essential. The demand of the people was for a civil state, neither religious nor military… having a politician who comes from the ranks of the people helps secure this demand.
