Nubian leader meets voters

Egypt’s newly formed Nubian Party has taken to the campaign trail in Aswan, to meet with locals and introduce the party to prospective voters in the region. Party co-founder Asmaa Abdallah has spoken exclusively to Arabstoday about the latest voter drive. Abdallah announced her Nubian Party would host a number of events in towns and villages across Upper Egypt’s Aswan region, moving on to Abu Simbel tomorrow to meet local Nubian leaders. The Nubian leader will then visit Nasr el-Nuba, the region where Nubians have been forcibly displaced from since 1902, on Saturday.   Former Nubian Party leader Musaad Herky has welcomed the establishment of Abdallah’s party and its emphasis on meeting the Egyptian electorate. “This will be a strong non-violent representative to push for Nubian rights,” he said. "Peaceaful politics is better than militancy." However, Nubian Affairs Committee chairman Ahmed Ishak dismissed the voter drive as premature. "This is not the right time to push for a Nubian party,” he claimed. “Egypt is in the middle of a difficult time that demands internal stability before establishing new political movements.”