Calls to arrest Aboul Fotouh after call for early elections

Calls have been made for former presidential candidate Dr Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh to be arrested after he wrote an article in which he suggested that Egypt should have early elections and form a transitional government. The somewhat hysterical response has come from Egyptian writers and mass media outlets, Arabi21 reported on Monday.

The chief editor of Al-Tahrir newspaper, Anwar Al-Hawwari, which published the article written by the leader of the Strong Egypt Party, declined to accept any responsibility for its content.

“I phoned Aboul Fotouh, asked him to write a weekly article and he accepted,” Al-Hawwari explained. “I was surprised that he called for early elections and the formation of a transitional government and transfer of the president’s constitutional powers to it.”

Al-Tahrir’s chief editor said that he ordered the article to be published without this paragraph as Al-Sisi’s legitimacy “is not a subject for discussion”.

According to Al-Ahram journalist Hussein Al-Zinati, Aboul Fotouh’s initiative is a kind of “instability” in his party and similar parties. “Such a call is illogical and far from the reality,” he claimed, “and it will lead him to prison.”

The Secretary General of Tahya Misr Coalition Fund, Tariq Mahmoud, said that he would file a complaint to the Public Prosecutor against Aboul Fotouh, accusing him of threatening Egypt’s national security. Others made similar calls for his arrest. One Coptic Christian writer, Hani Labib, suggested that what was written “may be the reason for [Aboul Fotouh’s] death”.

The response to the article illustrates the lack of independent thought among intellectuals and media personalities in Egypt since the 2013 coup and subsequent election of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as president.