Too few women and Copts, too many Muslim Brotherhood candidates. These are but some of the electoral messages being emitted, writes Fatemah Farag "We did not expect this regression in the political understanding of the issue of Egyptian women," laments Amina Shafiq, Al-Ahram columnist in the paper's 30 October issue. Shafiq, herself a candidate in the 8 November parliamentary elections for the left-leaning Tagammu Party, says she did not expect "the political parties -- large and small -- to nominate so few women leaders." It seems women were not the only "losing horse" as far as political parties are concerned, as candidate lists also saw few Coptic names. This is a particularly poignant fact when considering Saadeddin Ibrahim's warning in Al-Masri Al-Youm on 29 October in which he suggests, "not admitting the reality of what happened [acts of sectarian violence in Alexandria last week], and going as far as denying [sectarian strife] because of our feelings of shame, has made it impossible for us to confront, search and have an honest dialogue regarding solutions to our sectarian problems from its roots." The first step on the correct path, argues Ibrahim, is to "admit that there are minorities in Egypt with legitimate concerns and pent-up grievances little known by the majority. But the demagogues fill the air with noise regarding 'national unity' and 'immortal constants' and blackmail with talk of an external conspiracy." The solution, says Hazem Abdel-Rahman in Al-Ahram, is to "elect the largest possible number of Copts and women to parliament irrespective of their political and party affiliation. That is because we need to prove in a simple and practical manner our stance against those who plant sectarian strife." In this way, Abdel-Rahman adds, "we will convey the message to Copts and women that the era of their marginalisation from political life in Egypt -- which has lasted 50 years -- has come to an end." Perhaps these arguments are particularly relevant in the context of what many in the press fear is a too active Muslim Brotherhood -- the group many in the press have suggested is at least partly responsible for the acts of sectarian violence that took place in Moharem Bek last week. According to Karam Gabr in Rose El-Youssef, "the Brotherhood has fielded 150 candidates, the largest electoral demonstration in its history, the largest show of Brotherhood power since the 1952 Revolution. "Do we want a civil, enlightened, modern and advanced state or a pessimistic, religious state where those with beards whip us and return us to the time of jahilia (ignorance) such as the Taliban did in Afghanistan? 'Where is the Brotherhood taking this country?' is the question that should be answered clearly." But it is not just the Brotherhood who was making waves in the press. Magda Khidr in Al-Arabi wonders about the "race between businessmen spending million of pounds on election campaigns... it made me wonder where do they get all this money?" She says the spending spree has reached heights such as "the distribution of the latest model cars in an attempt to buy the votes of members of a constituency, as well as umra [lesser pilgrimage] trips and gifts for Ramadan and Eid [small Bairam]." And Salah Eissa in Al-Wafd says that even though media time allotted to the opposition and independent candidates has increased this round, "what is not acceptable is that the opposition parties have worked so hard for over 20 years for this increase while basic issues such as the independence of the state-owned media -- including print media -- from the state and all political parties... remains one of those files no one dares open." The issue of international monitors for the elections has also come to the fore. In Al-Wafd on Sunday, Alaa Oriybi asks if the NDP will forge the elections, and finds that the answer is yes. "Either through purchasing votes, a process funded by some businessmen and ministers, or by using the votes of the dead, or tampering with the final numbers -- we all know and are sure that the government will fight to the last minute to forge the results and that this is a battle of life or death." He suggests that international monitoring is the only solution. "Let them say what they want. We are traitors and love foreign intervention. That's better than the intervention of the government and its cronies." After all has been said and done, Wael El-Ibrashi in Sawt Al-Umma is not optimistic regarding the power of the people to affect the government. "The regime in Egypt is not receptive to any internal pressure. We do not want to say that the solution is external pressure a la Mehlis -- we have said time and again that we are against foreign intervention -- but what can we do if the regime in Egypt is not concerned with internal pressure? In this case we have no option but to wait for an earthquake such as the assassination of Al-Hariri."
