The nation's smallest parties will probably sink even deeper into oblivion after the parliamentary polls are over, reports Mustafa El-Menshawy The smaller parties that competed in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections in September seem to have dropped off the radar screen altogether when it comes to next month's parliamentary contests. Most of the fiercest battles for seats are taking place between candidates from the ruling NDP and a newly formed opposition coalition -- the National Front for Change -- that has brought together candidates from the larger opposition parties. The reasons for the smaller parties' absence vary: some of the parties felt their members were not prominent enough to make an impact; others were unable to put together enough funds to run strong campaigns. "We opted out of the parliamentary elections," said Takaful Party Chairman Osama Shaltout, "since they are marked by government oppression, bias against the opposition, and fears of rigging." Shaltout, who ran against President Hosni Mubarak in the 7 September presidential race, only got 30,000 votes. Six other small parties have decided to push forward anyway: the Umma Party (which is fielding 20 candidates); Misr 2000 (10); Misr Al-Fatah (three); Al-Wifaq Al-Qawmi (two); Al-Ittihadi (two); and the Green Party (one). Few, if any, of their candidates are expected to win. They neither have grassroots support, nor the funding to run strong campaigns. The Umma Party, for instance, is only spending LE3,000 on each of its candidates, compared to the LE50,000 reportedly being spent by the ruling party on its hopefuls. Umma Party Chairman Ahmed El-Sabahi said his party "is not in the race to really compete; we're just showing a presence, no more no less." El-Sabahi placed eighth in the presidential race with just 4,300 votes. The public, for the most part, has no clue what these parties stand for, or who their leaders are. Some of them seem dismally minuscule. The Geel Party, for instance, reportedly only has 75 members, compared with the ruling party's 1.9 million. Their weaknesses seem woefully clear despite hopes, during the three-week presidential campaign, that the free media coverage these smaller parties got would change things. In fact, the opposite seems to have occurred: the parties and their no-name candidates were widely ridiculed for offering platforms that seemed as far flung from reality as the chance that any of them could actually seriously compete against Hosni Mubarak. The problem for these parties is that if they don't make an impact this time around, they will probably sink even further into oblivion. After all, since the first presidential elections allowed any legitimate party the chance to field a candidate, the next time around -- in 2001 -- parties will have to already have five per cent of the parliament's seats to run. Had the smaller parties attempted to coordinate with each other, they might have had some sort of impact; this, however, has not occurred, even as the leaders of 10 of the larger opposition political groups chose to put aside long- standing enmities and join forces to contest the polls. The smaller parties' leaders, meanwhile, remained embroiled in counter-accusations of who, if anyone, would appear more prominently in any sort of union. There has been much talk, in the meantime, about restructuring the system so that these parties would have more of a fighting chance. One of the key factors, observers said, would involve drastically changing some of the laws that restrict the smaller parties' activities, as well as reducing alleged government harassment. Many of the parties also need to be extracted from the legacy of years of marginalisation. The government kept the Misr Socialist Party, for instance, frozen for 18 years -- until 2004. Today, the party only has 750 members; it has also consistently failed to field candidates for parliament. According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, the ruling National Democratic Party is also to blame, both for its refusal to allow any serious opposition to flourish, as well as for the way it pushed through a set of constitutional and legislative amendments that the report said were meant to distract attention from the need for deeper political reform. Analysts said that if the smaller parties are to survive, the ruling party must end both its monopoly on political life, and vast patronage network. Others blame the small parties themselves, saying some of them desperately need to clean up their own houses. "The leaders of these small parties are despots, appointing their family members to key party posts, which negates their calls for democracy and political participation," said Mohamed El-Sayed Said of Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. Other parties are embroiled in internal power struggles. At the Shaab Al-Demoqrati Party, for instance, three people are fighting for the top spot. At the Social Justice Party, four are competing to lead. According to Said, this dismal state of affairs means that these 11 small parties will fail to win any of parliament's 444 seats -- which is exactly what happened in 2000. "Egypt's small parties are like deadwood," he said.
