CAIRO: The Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution withdrew from the National Dialogue conference on Sunday, objecting to its domination by members of the “former corrupt regime”. “No members of the political powers participated in preparing the agenda of the conference or its objectives,” Mohamed Abbas, a member of the coalition and the Muslim Brotherhood, told Daily News Egypt. “Figures from the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) did that on their own.” Khaled El-Sayed, from the Youth Coalition and a member of the Youth for Justice and Freedom Movement, said the coalition refused the presence of the now officially disbanded NDP on the political scene. He added that the national dialogue was “just for appearance's sake,” and it wouldn't have any real effect on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' (SCAF) decisions or actions. “The dialogue is useless if the SCAF insists on making unilateral decisions without discussing them with political powers,” he told DNE. “The conference was held a couple of days after SCAF had already issued the amendments to the political participation law, which is useless,” he added. The National Dialogue Council is comprised of representatives from various political streams, professional syndicates and civil society organizations. Its first session was held on March 30, but was heavily criticized for not having clear criteria for selecting guests and participants. The Dialogue's management was then transferred from Prime Minister Deputy Yehia El-Gamal to former prime minister Abdel-Aziz Hegazy, with the purpose of reducing the government's organizational role to give civil society more space.
