Former independent MP and businessman Hamdi Al-Fakharani has filed a petition with Cairo's Administrative Justice Court seeking to delay parliamentary elections. “A one-year delay is needed to ensure security forces build the capacity to safeguard candidates and election campaigners against terrorist attacks,” claimed the petition. “The Muslim Brotherhood ... could otherwise exploit the poll to attack its rivals — candidates of political secular forces, non-Islamist independents and even the ultraconservative Nour Party — as it seeks to drag Egypt into a Syrian-style civil war.” Al-Fakharani, a vocal critic of the Muslim Brotherhood during its year in power under Mohamed Morsi, was attacked by a Brotherhood militia in 2012 while on his way to court to file a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament and its affiliated constituent assembly. “The number of parliamentary candidates could be as high as 6,000,” Al-Fakharani said during a television interview last week. “The Muslim Brotherhood could exploit election campaigns and target public rallies for attack. Should each of the candidates hold just ten rallies there will be 60,000 public gatherings across 27 governorates. How will they all be secured? “Security forces, now in a war of attrition with the Brotherhood, will not be able open a new front that covers all 27 of Egypt's governorates.” Al-Fakharani argues the new constitution does not fix a timetable for parliamentary polls. “Article 230 stipulates that preparations for parliamentary polls begin within six months of the promulgation of the new constitution but it left fixing the date when the polls are held to the High Elections Commission (HEC).” The lawsuit is supported by some politicians, particularly those linked to Hosni Mubarak's now-defunct National Democratic Party (NDP). “I am in favour of holding parliamentary polls as soon as possible, but only as long as the logistical support necessary to secure candidates is in place,” says Salah Hasaballah, a former NDP official and now a member of the Congress Party. The delay, argues Hasaballah, could be useful for political parties formed after the 2011 uprising and which “need time to create a grassroots presences in provincial governorates.” Tahani Al-Gibali, a former jurist on the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), insists that “a secure environment needs to be created before parliamentary polls can be held.” Gamal Zahran, a professor of political science at Suez Canal University and a former MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly he favours delaying the polls less out of security concerns but because time is needed to press for the exclusion of candidates linked with both the NDP and the Brotherhood, and that involves amending the political laws that regulate the poll. The Civilian Democratic Current, led by former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, has twice asked President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahleb to review laws regulating the House of Representatives and the exercise of political rights. “We want the polls to be delayed until these two laws are amended in a way that serves the political life of the nation,” Current official Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr told Al-Ahram daily. Liberal and leftist political parties object to the division of seats in the House of Representatives Law, which reserves 420, or 75 per cent of the total number of seats, for independent candidates, and just 120 for party-list based candidates. The chairman of the Wafd Party, Al-Sayed Al-Badawi, denounced the new election laws as paving the way for Mubarak-era and Muslim Brotherhood figures to enter parliament. He said he would support a delay in the poll as long as it resulted in changes to the House of Representatives Law. “The problem with Al-Badawi and his ilk,” says Hasaballah, “is that they are seeking to blame the election laws for what will be a dismal election performance when instead they should be looking at the reasons their parties command so little support.” Government officials and the HEC deny any plans are afoot to postpone parliamentary elections. “The HEC is currently working on completing all measures necessary for parliamentary polls to be held as soon as possible,” said an HEC spokesman. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ibrahim Al-Heneidy told the CBC channel that the redrawing of electoral districts, the last obstacle before elections can be held, is almost complete. “All that is needed is a final revision by the technical committee before the new electoral map is endorsed by Al-Sisi,” he said. New constituency boundaries have already been approved by the cabinet, say informed sources, but still need the approval of the Interior Ministry and the State Council Department of Legislation. Sources also say the HEC is in talks with the Higher Council for Judges to prepare a list of judges to oversee the poll. The cabinet of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb is strongly committed to implementing elections, the third part of the post-Morsi political roadmap, before 2015, says government spokesman Hossam Al-Kaweesh. Amr Moussa, chairman of the 50-member committee that drafted the new constitution, wrote on his Facebook page that any delay in the polls would compromise the political roadmap set out after Morsi's ouster. He also pointed out that security concerns raised ahead of May's presidential poll had proved unfounded and “security forces, along with the army, were perfectly capable of safeguarding the country against any terror threats.” Mohamed Anwar Sadat, chairman of the Reform and Development Party, told the Weekly that there were growing signs “Al-Sisi and the government are dragging their feet on the implementation of the post-30 June political roadmap.” “They are taking too much time finalising the electoral districts law and continue to refuse to meet with political parties to listen to their complaints about the new election laws,” says Sadat. “President Al-Sisi has met with the editors-in-chief of Egyptian newspapers twice yet he refuses to hold any meetings with political forces.”
