Meeting of the Egyptian Democracy Support Network's Domestic Members

On November 22 , domestic members of the EDSN convened a meeting at the Ibn Khaldun Center to agree on organizational details, elect a steering committee, and to establish objectives for activities in the coming months. The secretariat will be housed in the Ibn Khaldun Center for the first six months of EDSN operation and will report to an independent steering committee.

The newly-formed steering committee is composed of representatives from five NGOs as well as two public figures. The five NGOs with steering committee seats are: The Center for Developing Democratic Dialogue, Ma'ad Center for Judiciary and Constitutional Rights, Al Rewaq Al Gadeed Association, The Egyptian Association for Transparency, and Ibn Khaldun Center. The two public figures are political activists Ahmed Rizk and Madhat Khafagy. Members of the steering committee agreed to meet on a weekly basis.

The domestic coalition's November 22 meeting also resulted in a unanimous decision to build on the tremendous work of the 5,000 domestic election monitors who have observed the presidential election and ongoing parliamentary elections. There was recognition among those present that the work of domestic monitors will be of little use unless their findings are used to promote reform of Egypt's electoral law. The director of the NDI Cairo's civic programs, Niti Shehu, spoke to participants about potential plans of action and ways in which NDI could offer technical support. It was decided that the domestic coalition of the EDSN will take the lead in a campaign to: Draw on NGOs' and citizens' input regarding the deficiencies of Egypt's electoral law; explore possible solutions to those problems; establish a working group to draft a comprehensive new law with the help of international experts; and to seek the broadest possible support for this law through an enlarged coalition and massive advocacy campaign.