Presidential candidates are struggling to show their electoral pledges are more than campaign talk, reports Omayma Abdel-Latif During an election rally last Sunday National Democratic Party candidate President Hosni Mubarak responded to critics who had described his election promise to create four and half million jobs as "a bluff". "All the proposals in my electoral programme have been well- thought out," Mubarak told a crowd of 1,000 workers during the rally in 10th of Ramadan city. "Some ask how we will secure the funds to implement the pledge but I assure you everything has been considered. I have discussed the plans in detail with all concerned officials... this is not a charade for public consumption." Throughout the week presidential candidates have been busy publicising their pledges through TV commercials, interviews and public rallies. Each has been keen to paint a rosy picture of Egypt under their leadership as a land that is democratic, prosperous and strong. The campaigns, though, have been stronger on promises than on how they might be achieved, with some candidates adopting strikingly similar platforms. Indeed, Osama Shaltout, Takaful Party candidate, went so far as to accuse both the NDP and Ghad of plagiarising sections of his platform. It is the NDP's platform that has naturally garnered the greatest media attention with many analysts questioning the viability of delivering on such an ambitious agenda. Is it all, worry many, no more than a rehash of the kind of government statements with which the public is all too familiar? Mubarak has repeatedly acknowledged that combating unemployment is "the most important and serious challenge". But what, ask his opponents, has been done to tackle this, and other crucial issues, in the last 24 years of his rule? While unemployment figures officially hover around the 10 per cent mark announced in 2004 many analysts believe the true figure is nearer 30 per cent, and that the increase can be ascribed to the policies pursued by the NDP. "What is clear at this point," says Nabil Abdel-Fattah of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, "is that the NDP has shown itself to be lacking both the imagination, and the will, to address the fundamental problems besetting Egypt's political and economic life. While it has referred to some of the chronic problems Egypt faces during its campaign it has failed to acknowledge that these very problems are a result of the failed policies of the past 24 years." During a series of rallies Mubarak has reiterated most of the reform pledges outlined in his nomination speech. He has also announced that if elected he will establish a fund of LE63 billion to provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises over the next six years and promised increased access to funds for the manufacturing sector with the aim of creating at least 1.5 million jobs within six years. The NDP has also pledged to raise minimum wages and restructure pensions and provide incentives to private investors. The NDP's campaign clearly aims at promoting their candidate on a ticket of social and economic issues, with individual success stories during Mubarak's rule being given much publicity. The campaign centres on a raft of reforms which, it is claimed, will tackle serious social problems while helping Egypt through what Mubarak describes as "a transitional period". The strategy, it appears, is to target different sections of society, including labourers, the poor, women and the young. The campaign, however, has yet to tackle what many argue is the chronic corruption plaguing Egypt's economic performance. "In his campaign pledges," says Tagammu Party MP Abul-Ezz Al-Hariri, "the NDP candidate has not once referred to the corruption which has become a mode of governance. Nor is it clear how he can pledge to establish 1,000 factories over a six-year period when the government's understanding of economic reform seems not to extend beyond privatising the public sector." While every candidate has weighed into the economic arena, many programmes appear to be divorced from the reality on the ground. While combating corruption and unemployment is high on both Nour and Gomaa's agenda the details are few and far between. Nour has promised to "deconstruct the network of corruption and lobby groups and provide unemployment benefits", though he doesn't say how. Gomaa has warned of the "time bomb" that threatens social stability -- "poverty and unemployment are the NDP's gift to the Egyptians" -- is one slogan raised, but how the same poverty and unemployment are going to be defused no one is saying. Political reform has also been fore-grounded in the campaigns. For Gomaa reform is the top priority. Asked what would be his first task if elected to office Gomaa had no doubts. "Abolish emergency laws, release all political prisoners and end restrictions on political and civil liberties," he says firmly. Nour offers a different agenda, making it clear he is seeking office only for a transitional period of two years during which reforms would be enacted to shift Egypt towards greater democracy. He is the only candidate so far to have offered a timetable to accompany reform promises. If elected, says Nour, by October emergency laws will be repealed and political prisoners released. Free and fair parliamentary elections will be held the following month, and the state-controlled media restructured by January. By March an elected committee will be overseeing the writing of a new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum prior to the holding of new presidential elections in September 2007. While NDP campaign strategists early promised a timetable for their own reform package, this has yet to happen. Instead, the campaign appears to be increasingly focussed on the "you know me and I know you" message the president has repeated at almost all of his rallies. After 24 years in office his opponents are hoping it is a message that could backfire.
