After Egypt's new constitution was passed by a public referendum in January 2014 political parties began manoeuvring to form political alliances in the hopes of maximising their seats in the post-constitution parliament. The rush to form political alliances was prompted by Article 146 of the new constitution, which stipulates that the political party, or coalition of political parties, that wins the majority of seats will form the country's new post-parliamentary election government. Mubarak-era remnants Amr Moussa, a former Mubarak-era foreign minister and chairman of the 50-member committee that drafted the new constitution, tried his best to form an electoral bloc capable of gaining a majority in parliament. Moussa, who called his bloc “the Alliance of the Egyptian Nation,” insisted it was not intended to act as a support bloc for President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in the coming parliament. “It is not an attempt to lay the basis for a new political party loyal to the president, as happened in the past. Its aim is to help the newly-elected president move forward and implement the reforms required by the new constitution, in coordination with all political forces,” said Moussa. “It is not in the interests of the country to have a president in disagreement with parliament or with the prime minister. This could foster instability and chaos, the last thing we want for Egypt. We need all forces, irrespective of their political affiliation, to coordinate for the supreme national interests of the country.” But Moussa's two-month attempt to forge an election pact between civil forces ended in failure. In the first week of August Moussa said his efforts to forge an electoral alliance of secular forces to prevent Islamists from dominating the new parliament had ended in deadlock. The Alliance of the Egyptian Nation, an umbrella grouping of leftist and liberal forces he hoped would win a majority in the House of Representatives, was not to be. Moussa cited personal sensitivities, narrow-mindedness and ideological rifts as the reasons the Alliance of the Egyptian Nation failed to get off the ground. The collapse of Moussa's alliance, argues Wahid Abdel-Meguid, editor of Al-Ahram's International Politics magazine, revealed irreconcilable differences between the parties in the wake of the 25th January Revolution. The revolution saw the ouster of the autocratic president Hosni Mubarak and older political parties that had for decades provided a democratic window dressing for the Mubarak regime. “These political parties may pay lip service to the same liberal and leftist ideologies but differ fundamentally on how these ideologies can be implemented,” says Abdel-Meguid. “Old guard parties like Al-Wafd and Tagammu strongly support Al-Sisi and believe that a liberal agenda could destabilize the country. New parties like Al-Dostour see Al-Sisi as a throwback to military rule and that entering into an alliance with forces loyal to Al-Sisi, or which comprise Mubarak remnants, would be a breach of their principles.” The Wafd Party, say sources, had insisted Moussa's alliance be named after their party and demanded its own candidates top the alliance's lists. Al-Wafd also announced it could not join an electoral alliance that contained Mubarak-era politicians, a demand on which it would later backtrack. The Free Egyptians Party, founded by business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, refused to join with Moussa, insisting it preferred to contest the elections alone. Parties that emerged following the January revolution, says Abdel-Meguid, were always skeptical about Moussa's motives. Many thought Mubarak's former high-profile foreign minister was seeking a way to be appointed speaker of the coming House of Representatives. Between August and December six secular electoral alliances emerged. Abdel-Meguid argues government delays in preparing a law to redraw electoral districts, necessary before parliamentary polls can be held, led to the proliferation of electoral alliances. “The two largest alliances,” he says, “reflect a basic political divide between old- guard opposition parties and holdovers from the Mubarak regime.” The Wafd Alliance Formed by the Wafd Party led by business tycoon Al-Sayed Al-Badawi, the Wafd Alliance includes the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, led by gynecologist Mohamed Abul-Ghar; the Reform and Development party, led by politician Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat; the Conservatives Party, led by businessman Akmal Qortam; and the Awareness Party, led by the Chairman of Al-Ahly Sporting Club, Mahmoud Taher. Al-Badawi hopes that once the new parliament is elected secular forces will coordinate to make a majority and form the new government. A council will supervise the alliance's campaign. It includes the heads of member parties, as well as Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Al-Chobaki and the Mubarak-era official Mustafa Al-Fiki. Al-Fiki is also chairman of the committee responsible for drafting the alliance's manifesto. Al-Chobaki says the Wafd Alliance's platform will enshrine the principles of the 25 January and 30 June revolutions. “We want a real democracy based on a multi-party system, respect of human rights and the peaceful rotation of power.” The Egyptian Front It includes the National Movement party, founded by Mubarak's last prime minister and 2012 presidential candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, and headed by lawyer Yehia Qadri, Misr Baladi Party, founded by former interior minister Ahmed Gamaleddin, and Congress Party, founded by Mubarak's former foreign minister, Amr Moussa. The Modern Egypt Party, Geel Party, Democratic Al-Ghad Party and the leftist Tagammu party are also members, as is the General Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, Federation of Professional Syndicates and General Syndicate of Farmers. Two other parties, the Arab Nasserist Party and Qawmi (Nationalist) Party, also plan to join, says the alliance's spokesman Mostafa Bakri. Amin Radi, deputy chairman of the Congress Party, is the Egyptian Front's secretary-general. A former air force pilot, Radi is close to Mubarak and headed the parliamentary transport committee between 2005 and 2010. Ali Al-Moselhi, a former minister of social solidarity and member of the NDP's secretariat-general, is the Egyptian Front's general coordinator. Al-Moselhi said that he expects the Front to win “ a large number of seats in the coming parliament, hopefully the majority.” “When Mubarak was president opposition parties repeatedly claimed that were he not in power the NDP would melt away,” said Al-Moselhi. “But the NDP did not evaporate after Mubarak left office. Its deputies have deep-rooted business, familial and tribal links across Egypt.” Al-Moselhi notes that in the 2005 election most NDP candidates stood as independents, only to join the party after the poll and swell its parliamentary ranks. The Egyptian Front, he insists, will contest the elections not as an alliance of ex-NDP officials and Mubarak-era officials but as a national coalition that includes a mix of liberal and leftist forces. Al-Moselhi predicts many former NDP deputies will run as independents. Nabil Zaki, spokesman for the Tagammu Party, is also keen to stress that the Egyptian Front is not a smokescreen for Mubarak's former ruling party. “Tagammu joined the coalition because we believe the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist forces pose the most serious threat to Egypt, and political forces should unite to prevent them from returning to parliamentary and political life,” Zaki said. The coalition also opposes the Western liberal agenda espoused by some of the post-2011 Revolution's parties, such as Al-Dostour. The Front, says Bakri, is preparing for two public rallies, one in Alexandria and the other in Qena. “These are not election rallies,” he says, “but public conferences that seek to mobilise the people against the Muslim Brotherhood.” Pro Al-Sisi Three electoral coalitions, each associated with the Mubarak regime in one way or another, have appeared in the last few weeks. The first is led by Mubarak-era prime minister Kamal Al-Ganzouri. Al-Ganzouri insists he has no ambition to serve as parliamentary speaker. The aim of his coalition, he says, is to prevent Islamists from reasserting themselves in parliament. Al-Ganzouri approached a number of secular forces and invited them to join his electoral alliance. His most assiduous courtship was with the Egyptian Front. Parties that emerged following the January revolution argue Al-Ganzouri is acting as a cover for Al-Sisi who, they say, wants a parliament dominated by loyalists. A presidential spokesman insisted last month that Al-Sisi had not approached anyone to form an electoral alliance and Al-Ganzouri was acting on his own. The Independence Current is composed of low-profile political parties created under the Mubarak regime to give the illusion of a multiparty system. It is headed by Ahmed Al-Fadali, chairman of the Democratic Peace Party and an employee of the People's Assembly, now renamed the House of Representatives). Together Long Live Egypt is, says its general coordinator Medhat Al-Haddad, a coalition of retired military personnel determined not to allow Egypt to fall into the hands of Islamists. “If we are unable to field candidates we will mobilise the families of our members — an estimated 14 million voters — to cast their ballots against Islamists or any other anti-Al-Sisi force,” Al-Haddad said last October. There have been rumours that Ahmed Ezz is trying to gather former NDP colleagues in a new political party. The billionaire steel magnate was the NDP's secretary for organisational affairs and was the right-hand man of Mubarak's younger son and heir apparent, Gamal. Ezz was released from prison in October after paying a LE150 million fine pending trial on charges of tax evasion, illegal profiteering and monopolistic practices. With the Muslim Brotherhood banned and other parties divided, the door is wide open for a comeback by Mubarak-affiliated politicians, says Abdel-Meguid. “The Cairo Criminal Court's decision on 29 November to clear Mubarak of corruption and manslaughter charges is likely to further encourage them try once again to dominate political life.” A progressive alliance Political parties that came into being in the wake of the 25 January and 30 June Revolutions announced in October that they would stand together as the Democratic Alliance of Civil Forces. The alliance is led by 2014 presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, who says the coalition is intended as an umbrella grouping of progressive leftist and liberal political parties. It is very disturbing, Sabahi warns, that the two main blocs to emerge ahead of parliamentary elections should be alliances of Mubarak-era figures. The Democratic Alliance of Civil Forces includes the Popular Current led by Sabahi, Socialist Popular Alliance led by Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, Misr Al-Hurriya led by Amr Hamzawy, Al-Karama Party led by Mohamed Sami, Al-Dostour Party led by Hala Shukrallah, and the Justice Party led by Mustafa Al-Naggar. At a conference held after Mubarak was cleared of criminal and corruption charges, leaders of the Democratic Alliance threatened to boycott parliamentary elections unless the number of seats reserved for party lists was raised from 120 to 180 and “the absolute party list”, which gives candidates of a political alliance winning more than 50 percent of seats per district the right to join parliament, scrapped. Many parties in the Democratic Alliance have been accused in the private- and state-owned media of allowing themselves to be exploited by the Muslim Brotherhood to serve the group's political agenda in parliament under the one-year rule of Mohamed Morsi. Independents The Social Justice Alliance, led by Gamal Zahran, a professor of political science at Suez University and former independent MP, and the 25-30 Coalition, which comprises former independent MPs, seeks to promote an independent opposition.
