Attempts to form a broad-based electoral alliance among secular forces have stumbled, reports Gamal Essam El-Din. Informed sources say merger talks between the coalition, led by the Wafd Party, and the Civilian Democratic Current, led by 2014 presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, are deadlocked. Wafd Party Chairman Al-Sayed Al-Badawi hardly helped the situation by personally criticising Sabahi. In a recent television interview, Al-Badawi insisted “coordination with Sabahi's Democratic Current could be disastrous for Al-Wafd.” He continued, “Sabahi and his political associates are unpopular on the street, a fact made clear when Sabahi lost the presidential elections by a wide margin to Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The fact is, forging an alliance with Sabahi ahead of the parliamentary poll represents a political and electoral risk for Al-Wafd.” Al-Badawi's words triggered an immediate response from Democratic Current's officials, who announced the suspension of merger talks. “The move was necessary, not only because of Al-Badawi's anti-Sabahi rhetoric but also because Al-Wafd has entered into negotiations to ally with Mubarak-era officials from the defunct National Democratic Party (NDP),” says an informed Democratic Current source. Other sources with the Democratic Current, however, say Al-Badawi's criticisms have not derailed negotiations. “We are still negotiating to form one electoral alliance,” says Democratic Current member Ahmed Al-Boarie. “Officials from both sides are at work drafting a document of principles that will act as a manifesto for the two blocs.” Mustafa Bakri, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Osbou and a spokesman for the Egyptian Front coalition, an umbrella grouping that includes the Misr Baladi Party, led by former interior minister Ahmed Gamaleddin, and the National Movement, founded by Mubarak's last prime minister and 2012 presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik, says talks were held with the Wafd Alliance on 2 September. “We agreed to form a joint committee to address a number of issues,” claimed Bakri. He said that negotiations between the Wafd and the Egyptian Front have focused on “coordination between the two blocs, rather than forming an electoral alliance.” “The main aim is to ensure candidates do not compete against one another in the same districts,” said Bakri. Meanwhile, commentators were taken by surprise when Al-Ahram reported that former prime minister Kamal Al-Ganzouri was in the process of forming his own coalition, the National Alliance, to contest the parliamentary elections. Sources told Al-Ahram that the Al-Ganzouri-led alliance formed a higher committee last week, and was recruiting high-profile candidates to contest the polls. The committee includes ex-Mubarak officials close to Al-Ganzouri, including former minister for planning and international cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga, and former minister for local development Ahmed Zaki Abdien. Other members are Osama Heikal, information minister during the two years of military rule that followed Mubarak's removal, former deputy prime minister Yehia Al-Gammal, strategic expert Sameh Seif Al-Yazal and former governor of Alexandria and current minister of local development, Adel Labib. Al-Ganzouri, say sources, embarked on forming an independent electoral alliance only after Amr Moussa's attempts to forge a broad-based coalition failed. They add that the Ganzouri-led alliance is seeking to ensure that “independent figures with an outstanding record of public service join the coming parliament.” Since the alliance will contest the 120 seats reserved for party-based candidates, the “Al-Ganzouri committee has held a number of meetings with political parties, including the Free Egyptians Party, Tagammu and National Front coalition led by former NDP figures,” says one source. Rumours abound that the National Alliance's list of candidates will include Amr Moussa, former Tagammu chairman Rifaat Al-Said, Mubarak-era diplomat and parliamentarian Mustafa Al-Fiqi, former interior minister Ahmed Gamaleddin, former board member of the Supreme Constitutional Court Tahani Al-Gibali, and former chief of intelligence Mourad Muwafi. Sources add that negotiations are under way to persuade other public figures — Abdel-Salam Al-Mahgoub, a former Alexandria governor, Sameh Ashour, chairman of the Syndicate of Lawyers, and Ahmed Said, chairman of the Free Egyptians Party — to run as candidates. A number of high-profile Coptic public figures are also expected to join Al-Ganzouri's lists.Bakri told the Weekly he was surprised by Al-Ganzouri's move, saying, “I have no information about any coordination between Al-Ganzouri and the Egyptian Front, for which I act as spokesman.” He described the Al-Ganzouri-led alliance as “an attempt to set the stage for the return of Mubarak-era government ministers to political and parliamentary life.”
