Tagammu leader: Foreign parties behind Arab revolts, presidential council

Chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party Refaat al-Saeed said that revolutions in the Arab world "are not coincidence, but have foreign parties that seek to spread chaos and change the systems of governance behind them.”

In a meeting Thursday with members of al-Rowad Club in 10th of Ramadan City, Saeed also called the idea of forming a presidential council “unacceptable,” and said that no one can predict Egypt’s future.

He said the council, which would bring together former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, and possibly Nobel laureate and former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei to form a civilian government, “would be a late step even if it gained the consensus of the [people] in the street.”

Such a council and its composition would prove highly divisive, he said.

"Do Tahrir demonstrators represent all the segments of the society?” he asked.  “If so, then where is the right of other squares all over Egypt to choose the presidential council?"

The greatest danger of the presidential council, he said, is that it could bring into question a transfer to civilian power. He also urged the Egyptian people not to boycott the runoff elections.

Citizens should respect the results of the election, he said, because rejecting them would worsen the situation and lead to grave consequences.

In his speech, Saeed also worried that disputes and divisions in Egyptian society could lead to the collapse of the state.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm