A majority of political groups have rallied around the demand that the military transfer power by April at the latest, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky More than 60 political groups are involved in the launch of the Popular Consensus Initiative which will press the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to hand power to a civilian authority within six months. The initiative, which is also sponsored by several public figures, aims to create an umbrella grouping for political forces. Political scientist Seifeddin Abdel-Fattah is one of the founders. The initiative, he explained, intends to push eight basic demands around which a large majority of political groups have built a consensus. "Groups that have joined the initiative understand that they must put aside their differences in order to pursue an agenda on which they can all agree. There is an understanding that they must occupy common ground in order to combat counter-revolutionary forces and the political polarisation that threatens to undermine the revolution's gains." The initiative's slogan, Security, Bread, Freedom to Save Our Revolution, deliberately echoes the chant "bread, freedom, human dignity" that was raised in Tahrir Square in the early days of the uprising. "Then we were united against the Mubarak regime. Now we are divided. The only way to successfully negotiate the transition is to give priority to demands on which a majority of the Egyptian people agree," says Mohamed El-Qassass, a member of the Youth Revolution Coalition (YRC), one of the sponsors of the initiative. The Social Democratic Party, the Freedom Party, Socialist Coalition Party, Ghad, Wasat, Al-Nour and Tanmia wel-Benaa are among the initiative's signatories, alongside revolutionary groups, youth movements, including the YRC and 6 April, and NGOs. "We called on political groups and civil society organisations to join in creating a broad- based front capable of forcing the military and the government to respond to the revolution's most basic demands," says initiative co-founder Ahmed El-Nazieli. The initiative will call on the SCAF to transfer power to civilian authorities by 30 April 2012, following parliamentary and presidential elections. It will press the Minister of Interior to prepare a consistent plan to restore order to the streets, and is calling for changes to existing regulations governing the People's Assembly and Shura Council, an end to the emergency laws, an immediate halt to trials of civilians before military or state security courts and the retrial in civilian courts of those already convicted. "Egyptians need to see a clear timeline of when the military will leave power. Without it protests will continue daily and Egypt will be facing chaos. There will be a protest every day in the street and the country will sink in unprecedented chaos," said Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Tarek El-Zomor. The initiative's economic agenda includes the fixing of minimum and maximum salaries in the public sector, greater regulation of food prices and careful monitoring of the commodities market to weed out excessive profiteering. Some commentators criticise the initiative's founders for failing to outline the mechanisms by which its aims can be achieved, or to address the myriad of issues surrounding the drafting of a new constitution. Others praise the initiative for fixing its sights on a raft of policy measures that are capable of uniting Islamists and secular parties. Last week Amr Hamzawy, founder of Egypt's Freedom Party, called on all political forces to agree a list of candidates to head off any challenge by former members of Mubarak's now defunct National Democratic Party (NDP). Following Hamzawy's proposal representatives from different political parties met to discuss the possibility of a single list. The meeting ended without an agreement being reached, though participants expressed their commitment to fighting former NDP candidates rather than each other.
