[مستر محمد سلام]

Socialist Popular Alliance announces backing for Sabahi

The Socialist Popular Alliance Party has announced it will back Hamdeen Sabbahi in the upcoming presidential election.

Ninety percent of members backed the move at a party meeting on Friday, Secretary-General Talaat Fahmy told Ahram Online.

"We will be part of his campaign and participate in writing his electoral programme," said Fahmy.

He stressed the party had always wanted to see a competitive election, not a referendum on one candidate – a reference to former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Fahmy said the party was backing Sabahi because of his political background.

"Sabahi was always part of the Nasserist camp. He always stands behind the workers and the poor."

Sabahi would work to fulfil the demands of the January 2011 revolution and support marginalised people, he added.

Sabahi's Karama Party and Egyptian Popular Current, and the liberal Constitution Party, have also said they will support Sabahi's campaign.

The Socialist Popular Alliance Party is a leftist party formed shortly after the Egyptian revolution of 2011.