National Dialogue new ‘turning point’ in Egypt’s political, economic reform path: politicians

CAIRO – 15 May 2023: Egypt’s Member of Parliament, Amr Al-Qatami, said that the launch of the National Dialogue sessions represents the beginning and a ‘new turning point’ in the path of political, economic and social reform in Egypt, led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who called for the dialogue to bring together all national forces at one table.

Al-Qatami added that the national dialogue is a new hope for the Egyptian people, who are waiting for it to come out with outputs that will improve the political, economic, and social environments.

Al Qatami noted that the national dialogue is characterized by diversity, whether in terms of the issues it discusses, which include 113 issues, or through the participating groups, which include all groups and components of Egyptian society, stressing that this diversity witnessed by the national dialogue will be reflected in its outputs.

Another preponement political figure at the Nation's Future Party, Mohamad Rizk, considered that the start of the national dialogue sessions, over the course of 3 days during the current week, which will be public, confirms that the government transparency, and that ‘they have nothing to hide’

Rizk pointed out that the experience of the National Dialogue will have a positive impact on the course of political and partisan life, as it created a state of intellectual movement among the various spectrums of society.

According to Rizk, the Dialoug also contributed to re-building confidence again, with the release of 1,400 prisoners.

The first session of the National Dialogue specialized committee kicked off on Sunday with a debate on holding the elections with the closed absolute list system or with the proportional list system.

In the closed list, voters vote for only political parties as a whole. Meanwhile, in the proportional list system, each political party obtains a share of the constituency seats agree with its share of the vote.

The first session of the National Dialogue kicked off on Sunday at the Cairo Convention Center in Nasr City, Cairo, and run by the Political Rights Practices Committee of the National Dialogue. The committee also discussed discrimination issues and the challenges of cooperative work.

A coalition of 42 political parties announced its support for holding the elections with a proportional list system, said lawmaker and deputy of the Industry Committee at the Senate Tayseer Matar on Sunday.

He added that conducting holding the elections with a closed list system suits the Egyptian reality, Youm7 reported.

It is worth mentioning that the sessions of the National Dialogue committees will convene three times a week.

The National Dialogue was launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during the family iftar event in April 2022.

President Sisi said the dialogue will open its doors for “all political forces without an exclusion” except for the parties that have shown violent behavior or sponsored terrorist attacks,” pledging to attend the final sessions of the dialogue.