The Democratic Front Party is already preparing for the 2010 parliamentary elections, reports Pierre Loza On 22 June, 811 members of the newly launched Democratic Front Party gathered at a Downtown Cairo movie theatre to elect a seven-member executive body. As expected, law professor and former cabinet minister was elected unopposed as president of the party. Osama El-Ghazali Harb, Shura Council member and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram's quarterly Al-Siyasa Al-Dawliya, became the party's first vice-president. The conference also elected three additional vice- presidents, a secretary-general and deputy secretary-general. El-Gamal had initially suggested that party members over the age of 75 should not occupy executive posts, thereby excluding himself. In response to shows of support from party members, however, El-Gamal agreed to accept the position, albeit on a temporary basis. He would, he told the general assembly, leave office by the first quarter of 2008 at the latest. The licensing of the Democratic Front last May raised many questions over the motives of the pro-government Shura Council's Political Parties Committee which had earlier tuned down requests for licences from 12 other parties. "They approved us," El-Gamal told Al-Ahram Weekly, "because, alongside our programme, the party contains many members whose integrity cannot be impugned. And by licensing us, they may hope, perhaps, to move attention away from the Muslim Brotherhood." The party's ambition, El-Gamal continued, "is to establish the kind of democratic system that Egypt deserves, one based on the transfer of power and freedom to form political parties". But what about finances? How is the Democratic Front to be bankrolled? "If we set up a satellite channel for the party, for instance, it will need a lot of capital investment," says El-Gamal. In the meantime, however, the party plans to raise funds via a monthly membership fee. El-Gamal is optimistic about the party's ability to connect with the public and hopes that grassroots membership could reach one million within a year. The Democratic Front's appeal, he believes, will be grounded in a programme supporting human rights and democratic reform alongside market economic policies which do not include "giving Egypt away for free", a reference to the current government's controversial privatisation programme. El-Gamal is dismissive of the "inheritance scenario" -- i.e. the transfer of the presidency from father to son -- happening in Egypt as it did in Syria. "The Egyptian people are not stupid, they have discrimination and they will not accept it," he says. A secularist, who believes in a strong civil society, El-Gamal insists all political forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, must be allowed to express themselves freely. But isn't there something self-defeating in a party that seeks to base itself on solid administrative structures rather than the cult of personality to begin by breaking its own rules and allowing El-Gamal, who is over 75, to become president? Not at all, says Kamel Toueg, the newly elected deputy secretary general. Nobody contested the posts of president or first vice- president when they knew the Democratic Front's founders Harb and El-Gamal were standing, such is the support they command among members. "In an ideal world, where everything goes as planned, I expect the party to become extremely successful and respected," says Toueg. If enough people turn out to vote, Toueg argues, then the government will be unable to ignore the pressure for more meaningful democratic reforms. "I hope that people come to their senses and realise that it is far easier to challenge your opponent fairly at the election box rather than cheat. You do your work properly and you get elected."
