How much unity is there in the United National Front for Change, asks Fatemah Farag The 20-point programme released by the United National Front for Change (UNFC) last week begins ambitiously enough: "We present this programme for political and constitutional change with the aim of... eradicating poverty, ignorance, unemployment and corruption... [and providing] education, housing, health and work." The front, a coalition of 11 political parties and groupings, covers virtually the whole of the opposition. It includes the liberal Wafd, the leftist Tagammu and Nasserist parties, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist Labour Party, frozen by the government several years ago. The Islamist Wasat (centre) and the Nasserist Karama, two political parties yet to win legal sanction, are also members, as are many of the political groups -- Kifaya, the Popular Campaign for Change (Freedom Now), the National Alliance for Reform and Change and the more staid National Coalition for Democratic Transformation, headed by one-time prime minister Aziz Sidqi -- formed during last year's wave of activism against the re-election of President Hosni Mubarak for a fifth presidential term. The front's platform calls for comprehensive constitutional reform, an end to corruption and authoritarianism including the annulment of emergency laws, equality between the sexes and the bolstering of national unity. While many would be hard pressed to find fault with the declared goals of the front the question at the forefront of most observers' minds is how viable it is as a political grouping. Will the front be capable of making its presence felt in a parliament that has been dominated by the ruling party for decades? Any electoral coalition, however laudatory its aims, must in the end be judged on its ability to win seats. Electoral alliances are about fielding candidates and providing them with support and it is here that the front began to fracture even as it was being announced. No sooner had a unified candidate list been announced than exceptions became the rule. The Muslim Brotherhood would not participate in the unified list and is fielding 150 candidates of its own, under the usual slogan "Islam is the solution". Other political parties and movements followed suit, and many are also fielding candidates outside the list, some of them in the same constituencies as candidates on the list. "We must differentiate between the front and the unified list," argues Hussein Abdel-Razeq, UNFC spokesperson and secretary-general of the Tagammu Party. "The front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, and is still in the process of drawing up its organisational rules and a detailed political platform. This takes time, and will only be finished after elections. When it came to the list the Brotherhood announced that it had been preparing its own for some time and would not give up its slogan." While the leftist Tagammu has been divided over the forging of an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, often the target of fierce criticism from Tagammu Party leader Rifaat El-Said, it eventually agreed to the Brotherhood's participation in the front. "Even if we had reservations [regarding an electoral pact with the Muslim Brotherhood] we did not have time to express them because the Brotherhood had already made up its mind," says Abdel-Razeq. "Some people argue that the unified list would have been stronger had the Brotherhood joined it. Others, however, suggest that the main target of any electoral rigging by the state apparatus will be the Brotherhood, which might mean that its absence from the unified list will save the front from the brunt of the authorities' rigging and repressive practices." The front is fielding candidates in 180 constituencies; 114 from the Wafd, 47 from the Tagammu, 22 Nasserists, 13 from the Labour Party, eight from Karama, three from the Popular Campaign, two from the National Alliance and four independents. "There are nine 'open constituencies'," explains Abdel-Razeq, "where there is conflict between a coalition candidate and a candidate of one of the UNFC members. Of course this weakens us in these nine constituencies but we are still strong in the other 171."
