Egypt

Sabbahi: I accept referendum result, but Constitution illegitimate

Head of the Popular Current Hamdeen Sabbahi has said that he acknowledges the result of the constitutional referendum “because it is the opinion of the Egyptian people.”

Sabbahi is concerned, however, that there was vote rigging and a number of other violations during both stages of the referendum.

The Constitution has “lost its legitimacy,” Sabbahi said, “because it divided the Egyptian people into two teams, after they had bee gathered together by the revolution in one body and with a common goal.”

In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa, published Saturday, Sabbahi declined any further dialogue with President Mohamed Morsy.

“We responded to his calls before, and attended his meetings, but although he knows what we want, the situation has not changed.” 

But Sabbahi is not against serious dialogue, he said, which would have an agenda, combine all the national forces so as to not make a decision to serve one faction over another, and recognize the need for a general consensus between all forces.

These conditions, according to Sabbahi, would help bring Egypt out of the current stage of polarization and violence.

Having been accused to treason and seeking to undermine the president, Sabbahi stressed that Morsy is “the legitimate president of the country, and everyone wants him to be the president for all the Egyptian people all people, not one part of it.”

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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