By Annie Slemrod

BEIRUT: Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nour is in the process of founding a Lebanese branch of his Al-Ghad Party, he has revealed exclusively to The Daily Star.
In a Monday interview during the final hours of a visit to Lebanon, Nour also discussed the purpose of his trip, his upcoming presidential bid, and what lies ahead for post-revolutionary Egypt.
Nour, the head of the Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, said he will not announce the details of the new Lebanese Al-Ghad until “the right time,” but said that it will be a “liberal party” that shares the ideals of the party he helped to found in 2004.

Al-Ghad is part of the National Association for Change, the Egyptian opposition group headed by Mohamed ElBaradei. The party has expressed support for limiting presidential powers and liberal democracy.
“There’s a group of founders who will present [the details of Lebanon’s Al-Ghad],” he said. “Then there will be attention drawn to this party.”

In Lebanon since the weekend to participate in a workshop on the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, Nour has met with political figures from across the spectrum, including Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, and members of the March 14 secretariat.
He also met with caretaker Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud to “resolve some of the problems [faced by] Egyptians living in Lebanon.” These issues, he said, include [the] problems [of] health insurance, residency permits, and the “high” fees associated with these permits.Nour said that in a previous visit to Lebanon he discussed these issues with caretaker Labor Minister Burtros Harb, and “reached good results.”

A candidate for president in Egypt’s planned November elections, Nour said that he is campaigning on a platform of about 2,200 pages that “represents a recipe to save Egypt in these times. We have economic, social and political solutions, as well as a clear vision that relies on our former experience in the Egyptian parliament and our expertise.” Nour said that the platform contains “a recipe to save Egypt during 24 months, and to prevent further degradation during the next 24 months in order to start a new stage of economic development.”
This is Nour’s second presidential bid. In the 2005 elections, he came in a distant second with eight percent of the vote. The now-deposed Mubarak received 89 percent of the vote, in an election that Nour at the time said was rigged.

Nour said that the Egyptian revolution has taken its toll on Egypt’s economy, with tourism down and other income sources affected. He said that in January 2011 “the size of the budget deficit was 109 billion Egyptian pounds. Now it has reached 148 billion Egyptian pounds.” He added, “But all this … is not important in front of achieving liberty for the country … Everything has a price. Freedom has a price.”
Nour can himself be said to have paid a price for freedom, having been hospitalized this January because of an injury sustained during the anti-regime protests that eventually toppled the Mubarak regime. He was also imprisoned between Jan. 2005 and Feb. 2009. Nour was found guilty of forging signatures in the application to register Al-Ghad, charges that have been criticized as politically motivated.

Egypt’s revolution, Nour said, is not yet complete. “There will be a new day of rage on May 27,” he said. “The youth and the political forces of the revolution feel that progress is going too slow … There are things from the previous regime that we need to get rid of.”
Some commentators have expressed concern that the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood will gain power in the September parliamentary elections. Nour said that the Brotherhood “represent about 15 percent of the people.” He said he welcomes their candidacies because “we want all the people to participate.”