Nour plans to run for president

By Amr Emam
Saturday, January 30, 2010

Opposition activist Ayman Nour announced yesterday his desire to run for president in Egypt’s next presidential polls, downplaying the effect of what he called the “legal stumbling blocks” the Government allegedly puts on the opposition’s way to presidency.

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Nour said he felt obliged to run in the next elections, which are slated for 2011, so that Egypt could be “put” on track yet again.
“It’s necessary for everyone of us to act now to rescue the future of this country,” Nour said.

“Egypt’s future is in danger and a quick action is required if this country is to continue to hold,” he told The Gazette in an interview.

Nour, the founder of the opposition el-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, called for the formation of a new constitution and a transitional cabinet to be headed by former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed el-Baradie to prepare Egypt for what he called “fair” elections.

Nour came a distant second to Egypt’s incumbent President Hosni Mubarak in the country’s first contested presidential elections in 2005.

Some people say, Nour, who was previously convicted and sent to five years in jail for fabricating party documents, has many legal hindrances ahead if he wants to run for president.

He, however, says he had loaded his guns with the necessary legal arguments and documents to sort this legal problem out.

“If my party chooses to field me as a candidate in the elections, I would seek ways to find a solution to this problem,” Nour said.

“My party would ratchet up the necessary internal and external pressure to make this possible,” he added, without elaboration.

Members from Nour’s party are due to meet on Friday to agree whether they will pick him as
the party‘s presidential candidate.

Despite this, he has already started his campaign by touring more than 20 Egyptian cities to meet ordinary citizens and talk to them about his programme.

Nour, in his mid forties and a lawyer by profession, says he had found support everywhere he went, making him encouraged even more to run for president.

Mubarak, who has been ni power swince 1981, has not said yet wheite he will run for a 6th six-year term in office.

But in a recent interview with the Police Magazine, the President said he would welcome candidates who would “serve” the people.

Heartened by this, Nour is optimistic about his prospects in the elections. “I found support everywhere and this gives me hope,” Nour said.

“People’s feelings to my campaign are more than encouraging,” he added.

Ayman Nour invites El Baradei to form a constitutional convention

In his article today, Ayman Nour invites former IAEA chief, Mohamed El Baradei, to join Nour’s nation-wide door-knocking campaign. He also invites him to start a national campaign in order to establish a constitutional convention to draft a new constitution for the country. Here are the 3 basic suggestions Nour offers to El Baradei:

1. I invite Dr.El Baradei to participate with us, as an Egyptian reformer, in the door-knocking campaign. It started last April as a nonpartisan nationwide campaign aiming at spreading the ideas of reform and change through direct contact with the people. He is invited to lead the campaign’s second phase starting next February. In the first phase we’ve visited nearly 20 governorates and 30 major cities. The second phase will include weekly visits to the countryside population centers.
2. El Baradei is asked, as a law professor, to adopt a public campaign to form a national constitutional convention whose task is to draft a new constitution supported and signed by the people to achieve what we hope, and what El Baradei does, along with all political forces, for a constitution for a modern Egypt.
3. We call upon Dr.El Baradei to modify what was labelled in the media as ‘pre-conditions to run for presidency’ to ‘national rights and demands’.

[http://egyptdailydigest.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/daily-briefing-dec-11th-09-ayman-nour-invites-el-baradei-to-form-a-constitutional-convention/]

From Ayman Nour to Obama

Ayman Nour to Obama: I am Imprisoned in Egypt for the Charge of Threatening the Dream of the President's Successor

Former Ghad Party President Dr. Ayman Nour sent a message to Barack Obama, the democratic nominee to the American presidential elections.

Nour started his message by introducing himself from the oldest prison in Egypt and the Middle East. He was sentenced to five years in prison for forging powers of attorney required to establish Al-Ghad Party; a charge that he described as 'naïve'.

He said that the real charge is that he was a competitor to President Mubarak in last year's presidential elections. He threatened his dream to bequeath the presidential post to his son.

Nour indicated that a number of US officials have pressurized the Egyptian regime to release him yet to no avail. He stressed that the regime in Egypt is accustomed to such moral pressures and proved its ability to swap them with the regional interests, utilizing the seasonal nature of such pressures.

Nour expressed his support to Obama's stance as regards the situation in Iraq and the necessity to withdraw the American forces from there.

He added that Obama's references during his election tours about the risks of depending on dictator regimes do not correspond with the aspirations of Arab liberals.

He expressed his wish, being one of the generation of Obama, that January 20, 2009 be the date that the new American President will assume his post and that it would be a celebration for freedom and democracy in the whole world, repairing what was spoiled by supporting despotic rulers under the claim of preserving interests.