A new movement seeks to protect voters' rights in the upcoming parliamentary elections and beyond, reports Mohamed El-Sayed The newly - founded Hemaya movement held its first conference at the downtown Press Syndicate this week. The group -- whose name means "protection" -- has been expressly formed to safeguard voters' rights in the upcoming parliamentary elections and beyond. The movement's founders hope to propel Egypt's democratisation process by concentrating on voters, who "are the main key to achieve this change", according to a statement that bore the signatures of 26 intellectuals, journalists and writers. "The founders of this movement will contribute to addressing the disorders marring the relationship between voters and candidates during all kinds of elections," the statement said. Amongst the movement's 170 members are prominent public figures like writer and thinker Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri, Al-Destour Editor-in- Chief Ibrahim Eissa, Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre expert Diaa Rashwan, Nasserist media veteran Gamal Fahmi, and novelist Alaa El-Aswani. With parliamentary elections at the door, the movement's immediate concern is opening up a public dialogue about the tendency of independent parliamentary candidates to shift to the National Democratic Party (NDP) after they win seats. In the 2000 elections, 218 independent candidates joined the NDP after they won seats. Prior to this mass conversion, the NDP had garnered barely 38 per cent of the seats; with the additional members, the party's majority entitled it to form the government. "The movement will make a list of those independent candidates who converted to the NDP in the last parliamentary elections and present it to the voters -- so they know who betrayed them," said Mamdouh El-Sheikh, the movement's coordinator. El-Sheikh said Hemaya was "not a political movement, nor do we have candidates in any elections. We are merely working with the idea of establishing and promoting a code of ethics that should govern the election process, especially the relation between voters and candidates". According to El-Sheikh, three newspapers -- the independent Al-Masri Al-Youm, and partisan papers Al-Karama and Al-Wafd -- will be working with the movement to help it achieve its goals. The group has already managed to obtain written pledges from a number of independent candidates who indicated that they would not join the NDP if they win parliamentary seats. "We will publish these written pledges in the papers and on our web site [currently under construction]," El-Sheikh said. Members of the new movement -- who come from a broad spectrum of political trends -- insisted that there were no plans to turn Hemaya into a political party. "It's a civil movement aimed at raising the awareness of, and maintaining the rights of, voters during and after any elections -- be they parliamentary, presidential or municipal," said Cairo University political science professor Heba Raouf Ezzat, a member of Hemaya. Ezzat described Hemaya as "a movement centred on achieving 'effective citizenship'. Through our annual assessment of every MP, voters will be able to follow up on how their representatives do in the parliament or any other council, and whether they keep the promises they made before elections." Ezzat and other members said voters had to do their part as well, by providing the movement with relevant information. "We will be launching a hotline to receive information and complaints from the public throughout the next parliamentary session." The movement is self-financed; at the Press Syndicate, El-Sheikh emphasised that, "this conference cost LE500, paid by three of the members." Considering that only five of the group's members were in attendance, one wonders whether Hemaya will manage to gain the momentum it needs to fulfil its goals, or whether it will fade away like so many of the other movements that have come and gone in the past few months. "That such movements are being started bears witness to the fact that society is still alive," said Kamal El-Said, a Muslim-Brotherhood member of Hemaya. "Their existence puts more pressure on decision-makers, prompting them to take [the movements'] demands into account." The main challenge, however, "is reaching out to as many people as possible and urging them to take part in our movement", said Ammar Ali Hassan, a member. "We want people to participate because maintaining their voting rights is the key to real democratic change." The National Movement for Change (Kifaya) has also been attempting to address the issue of independent candidates converting to the NDP. "We will sue any independent candidate who converts to the NDP after winning a seat," warned Kifaya coordinator George Ishaq. "This is a clear violation of law, and a case of deceit towards the electorate. We will try to bring the NDP over to the idea of respecting voters' rights by foiling the nasty tricks employed by the ruling party. Our goal, at the end of the day, is fair elections."
