Mahmoud Bader, the founder of Tamarod, said the movement supports Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi running for presidency, but in the case he does not run, they would support Hamadeen Sabahi.
“The movement is seeking to form the biggest electoral alliance in the upcoming parliamentary elections in order to unite the forces fragmented on the goals of the revolution, since a crucial reason for the secular bloc's defeat, in spite of being the majority, was that they were not organized in the face of a minority of organized Islamists,” Badr told Algerian newspaper al-Fadjr.
Tamarod's reason for supporting Sisi in the presidential race is that he enjoys a nation-wide popularity compared to any other candidate. In addition, Badr says his experience with Sisi proved that he listens to other opinions and discusses them.
"There are a lot of discussions to transform the movement into a political party," according to Badr, "but the movement preferred to do that after the parliamentary elections are over."
When asked about the student protests currently taking place at Egyptian universities and why tje Tamarod Movement is absent from them, Badr denied that notion, noting that the movement is present with all classes of Egyptian people. He stressed that the movement defends students whether they are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood or not.
Bar explained that a representative from the movement had visited the interior minister, along with film director Khalid Youssef and the head of the Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, to demand the release of all detained students. This includes the MB supporters, and the minister promised to consider the proposal.
The next day, however, the pro-MB students' protests at Al-Azhar hampered this mediation.
Badr also described the performance of the transitional government in Egypt as ‘bad’ because "the economic ministers talk about politics and the politics-related ministers talk about the economy, which has led to extreme confusion in performance."
Edited translation from MENA
