CAIRO: Rebuilding Egypt's institutions and meeting the revolution's demands can only be achieved through swift elections and the hard work of the unions, syndicates, civil society organizations, students and political parties, a statement by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said. “There's no point in [holding protests] to pressure the rulers of the country to execute people's demands,” the statement read, “It has been proven that the people are the only ones who can execute their demands.” Ahmed Abou Baraka, FJP leader, said it is the people who set the next steps of the transitional period with their votes in the March referendum on constitutional amendments. The referendum stipulated that parliamentary elections be held first followed by drafting the constitution via a committee elected by the People's Assembly, all to be followed by presidential elections. “The specific timeline of these elections will be determined by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) based on the country's best interest, so there's no need for more protests or demonstrations,” Abou Baraka told Daily News Egypt. “I believe that the ruling council will not violate the people's votes in the referendum, otherwise this will mean [it was] a coup and [will lead to] a second revolution,” he added. Analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said the Muslim Brotherhood realized that SCAF will take action against the group and its affiliated party if they attempt to hold protests against the military rulers. “They know that demonstrating will lead to confrontations between the group and the authorities, bringing the group back to square one and stripping it of the gains made following the revolution,” Abdel Fattah told DNE. He added that the group gained much more than it deserved following the Jan. 25 revolt, by receiving recognition from SCAF and being allowed to establish a political party. “Other youth groups who had a more essential and driving role in the revolution did not gain as much as the Brotherhood,” he said. FJP called on SCAF in the statement to announce a specific timeline regarding the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections and drafting the new constitution, describing it as a “necessity.” It added that the timeline should be as short as possible. “The group wants to focus on the bigger battle ahead, which is the upcoming elections against remnants of the former regime,” Abdel Fattah said. Forty-five political powers, civil society groups and syndicates launched “The Popular Consensus” initiative on Thursday, calling on SCAF to hand over power to a civilian authority by April 30, 2012. FJP said while the SCAF was able to protect the path of the revolution, continuing to rule the country would diminish its ability to maintain this stature. The statement also said it has become clear that the ruling council is incapable of taking critical political decisions and stances regarding the transitional period, adding that both Egypt and SCAF are jeopardized by the continuance of military rule. “Egypt suffers from many problems and needs an appropriate vision to solve them within a reasonable timeframe…so that today's problems are not solved at the expense of the next generation,” the statement said, adding that SCAF was a temporary ruler that would not be in power long enough to solve Egypt's problems. The party also supported statements made by Justice Tarek El-Beshri on Al Jazeera Mubashir Misr, challenging the legality of the army council's decision to broaden the scope of the emergency law. It said that the state of emergency had legally ended on September 20 and cannot be renewed unless SCAF garners the people's support through a public referendum. The statement also touched on the Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations, condemning the position of the US administration. “This demonstrates the continuance of the hostile policies towards the Arab and Islamic states,” it said.
