CAIRO: Forty-five political groups, civil society organizations, unions and syndicates launched "The Popular Consensus" initiative Thursday calling on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to hand over power to a civilian government by April 30, 2012. "The aim of the initiative is to reach a state of popular and political consensus and unity that would [pressure] SCAF to execute our demands," member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, Mohamed El-Qassas, told Daily News Egypt following a press conference on Thursday. The initiative said that it would peacefully resort to escalation should SCAF ignore its demands. "We can hold press conferences and symposiums and maybe even hold million man marches to escalate the situation," Tarek Al-Zomor, member of Al-Gamaa'a Al-Islameyya's Shoura Council, told DNE. Medhat Eissa, official spokesman of the Suez Revolution Coalition, speculated that the situation could escalate and reach a state of civil disobedience. El-Qassas pointed out that the initiative hasn't decided whether it will participate in the call for mass protests on Sept. 30. The initiative brought together prominent political powers and youth groups, including the April 6 Youth Movement, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, the Youth for Freedom and Justice Movement, the March 9 Movement, and Al- Wasat, Al-Noor, Al-Karama and El-Adl parties. "The initiative is open for any new members," said Ahmed El-Nezeily, member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution. The members will tour Egypt's governorates with a 3,000-meter Egyptian flag, in a bid to raise people's awareness of its demands and collect endorsement signatures. El-Neziely expects the flag to be filled with written contributions expressing people's demands. The statement issued by the initiative on Thursday cited the three main demands: “security, bread and freedom.” The initiative stipulates that SCAF hand over power by April 30 to civilian rule including an elected parliament and president. "Seven months is more than enough time for SCAF to hand over power," El-Qassas said. SCAF had said in February that it would hand over power in six months or after the elections. It promised at the time to hold parliamentary and presidential elections before the end of 2011. However, the leaked schedule for the upcoming elections indicates that parliamentary elections would start in November and end in March. "I believe this timeline can be reduced so the parliamentary elections can be over sooner," said Aly Shabana, member of the Popular Will Front, which includes around 15 Salafi youths. He added that presidential hopefuls are already campaigning, so they won't need more than a month to prepare for the presidential elections in April. The demand for freedom also includes amending and implementing the treachery act and the People's Assembly and Shoura Council laws governing the upcoming elections, annulling the emergency law, ending military trials for civilians and retrying those who have already been sentenced. "The emergency law is a state that affects the normal citizen, not only the political atmosphere and gives too much authority to police forces," El-Qassas said. Most of the political powers in the initiative agreed that an open party list system should be solely implemented in the upcoming elections, instead of a combination between the closed party list and the individual candidates' system. The open party list would give voters more freedom in electing their chosen candidate from each party, instead of abiding by the order of a specific list of candidates, set by each party in the closed party list system. The demand for security entails compelling the Ministry of Interior to announce a clear security plan to combat chaos and thuggery, without violating the freedom and dignity of the people. The demand for “bread” refers to setting reasonable minimum and maximum wages within two weeks and announcing a short-term plan to revive the economy, regulate prices and monitor the market. "The police forces need to be restructured … they still follow the same methods they used under the former regime," said Khaled Abdel Hamid, member of the Youth for Freedom and Justice Movement. Regarding the treachery act which strips officials proven guilty of political corruption of their right to practice politics for five years, Shabana said that if SCAF refuses to implement it, the political powers will compile “black lists” including the names of former officials involved in corruption. "We want to prevent remnants of the former regime from temporarily participating in the political arena, until we establish strong institutions that will prevent corruption,” he said. "During the 18-day revolt, all Egyptians including liberals, Salafis, Islamists and communists stood side by side in Tahrir Square making one demand …we need to revive this spirit," Shabana said.
