CAIRO: Egypt’s April 6 protest group, which helped topple Hosni Mubarak in 2011, spoke out yesterday against any attempt by army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to seek the presidency, saying this would be divisive and destabilising.
Field Marshal Sisi, who is also defence minister, told a military gathering on Tuesday he would soon begin official procedures for registering his candidacy because he could not “turn his back on calls by the majority of Egyptians”.
April 6 at first backed Sisi’s removal of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July, but, like some other secular groups, has since returned to its former stance opposing army-backed rule.
“The defence minister’s candidacy for the post of president of the republic would not be in the interest of the divided nation and will not achieve the objectives of the revolution,” April 6 said on its official Facebook page.
“Rather, it will increase the crisis greatly and detract from stability and desired progress,” it said.
Opposition from April 6, which helped mobilise crowds against Mubarak, but has no broad political base, seems unlikely to dent Sisi’s chances of sweeping to the presidency. No date for the election has been set.
Wildly popular, Sisi looks set to become the latest in Egypt’s long line of rulers drawn from the military — a tradition only broken during Mursi’s one year in power.
Reuters
