Candidate registration for parliamentary elections is scheduled to begin on Saturday and, according to Samir Abul-Maati, chairman of the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC), “will remain open until 16 March”. Then, “beginning on 18 March, the SEC and Administrative Justice Courts will take charge of reviewing the registration process until the announcement of the final list of candidates on 30 March”. Almost all non-Islamist political forces have decided to boycott the polls. The National Salvation Front (NSF) — a coalition including liberal, leftist and nationalist opposition forces — said “the boycott is comprehensive, including nominations and voting alike”. NSF Chairman Mohamed Al-Baradei said the front has embarked on a nationwide campaign aimed at urging citizens to join the boycott. The campaign, says NSF's official spokesman Ahmed Al-Boraai, will take the form of “organising door to door missions in different governorates and forming a shadow government and parallel parliament”. The NSF has described SEC officials as “politically naive”. “They selected 9 March as the date for registration to begin, the same day a verdict in the Port Said stadium massacre is expected,” points out Al-Boraai. Port Said has been the scene of month long clashes and a campaign of civil disobedience that now threatens to spread to neighbouring governorates. Citizens in Port Said and Daqahliya blame the government of President Mohamed Morsi for excessive use of force. If the court confirms that 21 defendants charged of manslaughter during the football match on 1 February 2012 are to be executed, Port Said will be in bloody mood again. Al-Baradei has also sharply criticised Morsi's ratification of the election law. “This is political bullying,” he wrote on Twitter on 3 March, adding that “the ratification without referring the law back to the Supreme Constitutional Court [SCC] for final revision shows a clear contempt for the rule of law.” Cracks, however, appear to have hit NSF's boycott calls. Several members of the Wafd Party have come out in favour of participating in parliamentary polls. “The boycott will make it much easier for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist forces to tighten their political control of Egypt,” argues former Wafdist MP Tarek Sabak. He said a number of former Wafdist MPs are expected to register their names as candidates when the door opens next week. Wafd Chairman Al-Sayed Al-Badawi concedes that “a lot of Wafdists argued that the boycott will be politically damaging to the party, but the majority said the boycott is a necessity and it is aimed at stripping the Morsi regime of any legitimacy.” Younis Makhioun, chairman of the Salafist Nour Party, agrees with Al-Baradei, that “the election law must be referred back to SCC”. “The next parliament will face the spectre of dissolution unless the law is referred back to the SCC for a final say on amended articles.” Makhioun cites SCC's Deputy Chairman Maher Sami warning that “if the Shura Council fails to amend the two laws in accordance with the SCC's findings they could be ruled unconstitutional again.” In a national dialogue session with Morsi on 26 February Makhioun accused the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party of placing its members in key positions in 25 governorates in order to manipulate the upcoming polls. “The group has also tightened its control on four key ministerial portfolios [information, local development, youth and internal trade and supplies],” warned Makhioun, “which is guaranteed to compromise the integrity of the ballot”. He demanded “the government of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil be at the very least reshuffled to allow politically neutral ministers to take charge of the key portfolios.” Makhioun's demands were ignored by Morsi. FJP officials insisted referring the election law back to the SCC would be “a waste of time”. Chairman of the FJP's Legislative Committee Mokhtar Al-Ashri insists that “the law cannot be ruled unconstitutional because the constitution does not authorise the SCC to exercise post-ratification scrutiny of political laws.” Several constitutional law professors agree with Makhioun. Ain Shams University professor Atef Salem points out that “the Shura Council refused to implement two of the SCC's orders: that anyone who failed to perform military service for national security reasons must be excluded as a candidate and that electoral districts must be redrawn in a fair way.” “These two orders were manipulated by the FJP majority in the council to serve their needs rather than the public interest as demanded by the SCC,” says Salem. On Monday Al-Boraai underlined that the election law conflicts with military service Law 127/1980 which states that “those who posed threats to national security must be prevented from performing military duty and from joining parliament.” The NSF has also complained that Morsi ordered the Interior Ministry to give the Brotherhood's FJP a complete list of registered voters. Despite Makhioun's reservations about the integrity of the poll the Nour will be fielding candidates in all seats. “Despite the absence of adequate benchmarks of integrity and transparency we will be participating in the upcoming polls in a bid to prevent one faction dominating political life,” said Makhioun. In a press conference on Tuesday, the NSF announced that it is studying the possibility of forming a presidential council to take charge of re-structuring the front's performance. “This council will be aimed at making sure that the front adopts unified stands on political issues and that it remains immune to internal divisions,” said Al-Boraai, who added that the NSF is in the process of consultations to split into two main political parties — one representing liberal forces and the other including leftist factions. “This will help the front hold firm — rather than disintegrate — in the face of political storms,” Al-Boraai argued. He also announced that an NSF satellite channel will be set up to reach out to citizens everywhere in Egypt and mobilise them in boycotting the upcoming polls. FJP officials announced on 3 March that it would field candidates in all electoral districts. FJP's Secretary-general Hussein Ibrahim and Chairman of the FJP's Cairo office Mohamed Al-Beltagui will both be standing. FJP chairman and former parliamentary speaker Saad Al-Katatni is also expected to run. The FJP is expected to forge an alliance with radical Islamist Salafist forces, including Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Reconstruction and Development Party and the Watan (Homeland) Party led by Hazem Abu Ismail, the Islamist cleric barred as a presidential candidate for failing to disclose, and then denying, that his mother held American citizenship. The Wasat (Centre) Party — a Brotherhood offshoot — has also decided to join the race. Strong Egypt — the Islamist party led by former presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh — announced on 5 March that it, too, would contest the polls. As expected, two minor secular parties close to Muslim Brotherhood — the liberal Ghad Al-Thawra led by Ayman Nour and the Reform and Development Party led by Anwar Al-Sadat — chose to join the race.
