The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the interim government are adopting policies of toppled President Mubarak, activists said on Sunday.
Mark Franco, head of the European Union delegation in Cairo, said last week that the government refused international monitoring of elections.
Activists who spoke to Al-Masry Al-Youm said the government’s rejection of international monitoring indicates its unwillingness to hold fair elections.
Bahey Eddin Hassan, the director of Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said, “The current government worked and will work with the former regime’s mentality. We can see this clearly with regard to security, restrictions imposed on political parties, and the adoption of the same draft laws that Mubarak approved before stepping down.”
Hassan added that to link the country’s sovereignty with international monitoring would be disingenuous. “There‘s no relation between international oversight and the country’s sovereignty,” he said.
Describing the government’s position as an “evasion,” activist and lawyer Negad al-Boraie said that the government has a problem with both local and international oversight. He added, “[the government has] accustomed us to statements that fall short of what actually ends up happening.”
The current government is incapable of running upcoming parliamentary elections, Boraie added, saying that 70 percent of its members belong to the disbanded National Democratic Party’s general secretariat. He said that this number reveals that the government is unwilling to hold fair elections.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
