They may be united in their calls for constitutional reform, but that's about all the main opposition parties can agree on, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The three-day conference convened by the Coalition of Egyptian Opposition Parties ended, as expected, with a call for constitutional reform. In a press statement on Monday the leaders of the coalition -- which includes the official opposition parties of Wafd, Tagammu, the Nasserists and Democratic Front -- said sweeping constitutional reforms were urgently needed to ensure free elections and eliminate the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) monopoly on power. Mahmoud Abaza, leader of Wafd, called for a move away from the current presidential regime towards greater parliamentary democracy. The conference, said Abaza, had focussed on the necessity of amending articles 76, 77 and 88 as a prelude to a wide ranging constitutional overhaul. "The coalition agreed that the first step on the long road to democracy should be the abolition of all articles concentrating power in the hands of an individual or party," said Abaza. The coalition, he continued, urged President Hosni Mubarak to step down as head of the NDP "to strike a better balance between the three branches of government and ensure that the president of the republic is the president of all Egyptians rather than the members of a single party." The coalition also called for an end to the state of emergency in place since the assassination of president Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 and changes to the regulations governing the People's Assembly, the Shura Council, municipal councils, political parties, professional syndicates, NGOs and the press. Not that everything at the conference ran smoothly. The Wafd Party found itself in the eye of a political storm on Sunday when the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported that Abaza had struck a secret deal with the NDP ahead of upcoming elections. According to the paper's 14 March edition the NDP had guaranteed that Wafd will win 23 seats in next parliament in return for isolating the ex-head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El-Baradei and refusing to endorse his agenda for reform. The paper also asserted that the deal stipulated that Wafd also play a role in isolating Muslim Brotherhood. In response Abaza lashed out at the paper, accusing it of "spreading lies", and vowing to take legal action. He received the support of other coalition party leaders. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif also hurried to Abaza's defence, denying Al-Masry Al-Yom reports and insisting that, "the only deals the NDP makes are with the citizens of Egypt, who have the right to decide and vote". In general, the NDP's reaction to the conference varied from prickly to cool. Four days ahead of the conference El-Sherif angered the coalition by insisting that, "the NDP does not have any plans to amend the constitution in the near future." On Monday El-Sherif backtracked slightly, saying "we listen carefully to minority parties but they should seek to impose their agenda on the majority". Aside from exchanging accusations with the press and the NDP, coalition members differed over the extent to which they should, or should not, cooperate with El-Baradei. Osama El-Ghazali Harb, chairman of the Democratic Front Party, praised the way El-Baradei had revitalised political life, telling Al-Ahram Weekly that "El-Baradei's calls for constitutional reform are the same espoused by the coalition and we complement one another." "El-Baradei is a valuable asset for Egypt's political life and our objective is to unify all opposition forces under the banner of change," said Harb. Abaza took the opposite line, claiming El-Baradei "has been trying his best to tarnish the image of major opposition parties". "Independents have no clear agenda for reform and most of them are motivated by opportunism," railed Wafd leader. Abaza was joined by Sameh Ashour, deputy chairman of the Nasserist Party, and by Tagammu's Rifaat Said, both of whom criticised El-Baradei's refusal to cooperate with the "old opposition parties". "We have no wish to clash with any person or group, and certainly not the National Assembly for Change led by Mohamed El-Baradei," said Ashour. "But we refuse to be steamrolled into adopting anyone's agenda and will not allow anyone to overlook the role played by the major opposition parties." "As established parties we are bound by internal regulations rather than the decisions of individuals as it is the case with El-Baradei's assembly," Ashour continued. In a brief interview with the Weekly, Harb stressed that the coalition's conference was not a response to El-Baradei's recently-formed National Assembly for Change. "We began planning for this conference five months ago," he said, "and March seemed the most appropriate time to convene, a month before preparations begin for the Shura Council elections." El-Baradei's spokesman Hassan Nafaa, a Cairo university professor of political science, was optimistic about the possibility of future cooperation between the coalition and the assembly. "El-Baradei and the coalition share the same vision for reform. Both agree that reform should begin with constitutional changes," said Nafaa. He argued that, "the formation of El-Baradei's National Assembly for Change was the main catalyst that pushed the coalition to hold this week's conference" and that this was "a positive development as long as it results in a national consensus for reform and brings pressure on NDP to democratise". El-Baradei is due to return to Egypt on Saturday. While President Mubarak was in Germany undergoing surgery, El-Baradei was in the same country receiving a prize from the German President Horst Koehler. The coalition parties differed on strategy towards the next parliamentary elections. Harb said the "NDP's rejection of our constitutional reform requests could easily push us into the direction of boycotting the elections," while El-Tagammu's Said argued a boycott would "only serve the NDP". The coalition's four parties were most united in their opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood "We are all against the ruling NDP and the Muslim Brothers because both oppose a democratic and civil state," said Said. In response, the outlawed group claimed "the main aim of the coalition conference was to isolate the Brothers, thus helping the NDP." Independent observers noted that the conference avoided outlining any strategy by which its reform agenda might be imposed on the NDP. "They did not clarify how they intended to promote their agenda," says Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabei. "They could have proposed an election boycott, requested dialogue with the NDP or organised street protests but failed to do any of these things."
