The Tamarod movement officially announced, for the second time, its support for potential presidential candidate Defense Minister Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in an urgent general assembly held Monday.
The movement’s announcement follows divisive tensions that broke out inside the movement after 50 members, including party spokesperson Hassan Shahin and co-founder Mohamed Abdel Aziz, declared their support Sunday for potential presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.
On Feb. 7, Tamarod made its first official announcement to support Sisi for the presidential bid, even though he has not declared his candidacy.
During Monday’s assembly, co-founder of Tamarod Mahmoud Badr said that other Tamarod’s members were surprised by their colleagues’ decision to support Sabbahi. Badr said that Shahin and Abdel Aziz are his friends and that he denies there is a split in the movement.
“Our assembly today included representatives for more than 22 governorates, and our decision is to support Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi for president,” continued Badr.
He then thanked both Abdel Aziz and Shahin, saying, “Thank you for personally announcing your support to Sabbahi, and affirmed that the movement has a variety of opinions… You are not the ones to be blamed, but the blame is for the official page of the movement, which promotes another trend.”
Amid cheers calling for the dismissal of Shahin and Abdel Aziz, Badr said, “We are here today to maintain Tamarod, and we will not dismiss Abdel Aziz and Shahin from the movement’s history.”
During the assembly, pro-Badr chants were repeated and other cheers such as, “Tamarod is the origin, and Sisi in the palace.”
