Hopes are high but the challenges facing the nascent Democratic Front Party are even higher, writes Pierre Loza On 24 May the Shura Council's Political Parties Committee granted a licence to the Democratic Front, led by appointed Shura Council member Osama El-Ghazali Harb and the former cabinet minister and legal professor Yehia El-Gamal. The Shura Council's Political Parties Committee regularly rejects applications from new parties for licences, recently rejecting 12 in a single session. While the petitioners appealed against the committee's refusal to issue licences, the court upheld the decision on the grounds that none of the applications was accompanied by the 1,000 signatures required. The Democratic Front presented the committee with 1,700 signatures last February. Harb, who is editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine Al-Siyasa Al-Dawliya, was also granted a one-year extension of his post at the state- run magazine by the Shura Council. Harb hit the headlines in March 2006 when he resigned from the NDP's powerful Policies Committee, chaired by President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal. Subjected to a smear campaign in parts of the state-owned media, rumours circulated at the time that he had been banned from appearing on public television. The new party's founders include the screenwriter Osama Anwar Okasha and independent MP Anwar El-Sadat, whose parliamentary immunity was recently revoked following a court declaration of bankruptcy. "I think several factors worked together to improve our chances of being approved," said Harb, who denies allegations made by some observers that the new party had cut a deal with the NDP. "It would have looked bad internationally if the government had refused to license a serious party following Egypt's election of the International Council for Human Rights." Harb believes the party's impressive list of "reputable members" and its espousal of a solid programme also helped, though the major factor, he says, is that the "Egyptian regime has come to realise the need for potent political forces that can countervail the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood." The Brotherhood's popularity, Harb argues, is a result of rampant corruption coupled with an absence of democracy. "In the 1930s and 1940s no Brotherhood figure contemplated running for election because there was a strong, secular, liberal party named Al-Wafd. Give the people true democracy and the Brotherhood will revert to its natural size." Extremism, says Harb, is the natural result of widespread oppressive practices in Muslim states. By focussing on the 77 per cent of the Egyptian population that regularly opts out of voting, Harb's ambition for the party is that it help break the political monopoly of the NDP and Muslim Brotherhood. The Democratic Front has nothing in common with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, says Harb, effectively ruling out the possibility of any future electoral alliance, but "we could not claim to be a liberal democratic party and then deny them the right to their own independent legitimate party as long as it is not based on religion." The party, which has raised LE610,000 so far, plans an aggressive fundraising campaign. It will be spearheaded by Rawy Camel-Toueg, a corporate manager who is also the party treasurer and a member of its temporary executive committee. "I reached a point when, as a Copt, I began asking myself what the best country would be for my children to emigrate to," says Toueg. "Understanding that the situation for Egypt's Copts is not ideal, and realising that it would not be improved by my simply sitting around and complaining I decided to join this party." The temporary executive committee will be disbanded on 22 June, the day on which the permanent structure of the party will be unveiled during elections held as part of its first public conference. Party members will first elect a chairman, three or four vice-chairmen, and a secretary-general. Sources close to the new party say 79-year-old El-Gamal is likely to be the chairman while Harb will assume the post of deputy chairman, at least for a period of one year. The Higher Assembly, also to be elected by members, will act as the party's highest authority. The day to day running of the party will be handled by 12 people, elected from the Higher Assembly to form the Executive Committee. Under Egyptian law, political parties can receive donations from individuals but not institutions. Toueg hopes to publish the party's budget on its website on a quarterly basis in a bid for greater transparency. The Democratic Front's slogan "Freedom and justice in a civil nation" attracted Khaled Qandeel, deputy chairman of a multinational corporation. Qandeel, who confesses he is not political by nature, says his reason for joining the party was a desire to push back the rising tide of conservatism. "The term secular has been misused to the point that it now connotes agnosticism, which is wrong. We are not against religion. We are against the establishment of a theocracy because we see Egypt as a civil nation," says Qandeel. Egyptian culture, he argues, is the product of diverse civilisations and he hopes Egypt can rekindle the pluralism that once marked its public life. "We aim to build a political institution that can live on, after we are all long gone, one that is built on a sound organisational structure rather than individuals." Topping the list of the new party's priorities, Qandeel says, will be issues such as unemployment and education, which will have to be tackled in order to correct the unequal distribution of wealth that marks Egypt today.
