For Immediate Release
Woodbridge, VA, September 10, ‏‏ 2005

The Alliance of Egyptian Americans
تحالف المصريين الأمريكيين

The first national meeting of the Alliance of Egyptian Americans (AEA) was attended by members of the Egyptian American community from Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

AEA is comprised of Egyptian Americans, their friends and supporters, who aim to empower Egyptian in the USA and elsewhere. AEA is a non-governmental, non-profit, educational organization registered in the State of Florida.  The organization’s primary objectives are to serve the best interests of Egyptian Americans and enrich our chosen new home through cross-cultural understanding and tolerance for diversity in the USA. AEA supports the aspirations of Egyptian people for true democracy, social justice and prosperity. The members advocate for positive relations between the American and the Egyptian people.

Dr. Safei El Din Hamed, AEA President, stated in his opening remarks, “No one among us seeks political power in Egypt or is interested in financial favors from the current or future governments in Egypt.  No one is interested in holding a governmental post or will run for elected office in Egypt.”

The members of AEA represent all walks of life and the spectrum of different political, religious backgrounds and orientations.  All believe in promoting true democracy, social justice, balanced development and empowering the Egyptian people.

The national meeting followed Egypt’s first multi-party presidential elections which should have been “a positive first” toward real democratization of Egypt. Instead the presidential elections were neither competitive nor truly democratic. Independent candidates, popular political movements and parties were excluded. It was also marred with irregularities and manipulative strategies by the ruling party including voter intimidation, ballot-stuffing, vote buying and the use of government vehicles to transport Mubarak’s supporters to vote.

AEA supports the following steps to achieve real reform and address the regime’s legitimacy crisis in Egypt:

1- Assert the right of all Egyptians including expatriates, living and working in the United States and elsewhere, to vote in presidential elections.  Based on the current Egyptian government’s blatant exclusion of Egyptian expatriates’ from voting in the 2005 presidential elections, AEA considers the outcome of these elections to be a violation of the constitutional rights of Egyptian expatriates. AEA reserves the right to take appropriate action to protect the civil rights of Egyptian Americans.

2- Overhaul the presidential electoral system. Drop the requirement (introduced by Article 76 of the Egyptian Constitution) for independent candidates to secure endorsement from five percent [250 members] of the Egyptian elected officials.

3- Remove the current restrictions on the formation of political parties which curb political freedom. Secure a new environment for real participatory democracy through promoting civil society, non-governmental organizations, associations, unions and their activities.

4- End governmental media manipulation and censorship.

5- Immediate end to the emergency laws and promote the basic rights of free speech, expression and association. The immediate release of all political prisoners.

6- Allow both local and international monitoring of future elections in Egypt to secure free and fair elections. This should go hand in hand with full judicial supervision over the entire election process.

7- Encourage a genuine national dialogue among all political entities in Egypt to reach a consensus on requirements for political and economic reform.

8- Elect an Egyptian national assembly to draft a new constitution without any interference from the current government. This constitution should reflect:
· a democratic state;
· limited powers of the presidency, the executive, and the military;
· empowers the independent judiciary with executive oversight;
· provides for freely elected legislators, and
· separation of the ruling party from the state.

9- Encourage the legitimate rights of the disadvantaged, and the introduction of economic reforms that provide real opportunities to Egyptians, with a special focus on the needs of youth.

10- Encourage the development of a system to combat the rampant corruption in the Egyptian government and make any official accountable to transparency under the rule of law.