As one of its candidates runs for a critical by-election in Damanhour, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is being attacked from several different sides. Gamal Essam El-Din reports A controversial parliamentary re-election for the professionals (fi'at) seat representing Damanhour, the provincial capital of the northern Delta Governorate of Al-Beheira, took place yesterday. The re- election featured only two candidates: Gamal Heshmat, a doctor and a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood; and Khairi Kilig, a lawyer and a member of the liberal-oriented Wafd Party. The re-election was the result of a 15 December decision by the People's Assembly to strip Heshmat of his parliamentary membership, based on a Cassation Court report about Heshmat's victory in the 2000 parliamentary elections in Damanhour. The report, which was rammed through parliament in less than 24 hours, indicated that a grave vote-counting error had stripped Kilig of the right to compete against Heshmat in the district's run-off elections. As a result, the report recommended that a new round of elections be held between Heshmat and Kilig as soon as possible. As late as Saturday morning the Interior Ministry had still not informed the press of the official date set for the Damanhour by-election. By Saturday evening, however, the cat was out of the bag: the contest would take place the following Wednesday. Announcing the date only four days ahead of the by- election seemed to confirm Heshmat and the Brotherhood's suspicions that the government was doing all it could to guarantee that Heshmat would lose. "The by-election date, as stipulated by the 1956 Electoral Rights Law, has to be announced 45 days in advance," Heshmat said. The former MP said he was "summoned by the Interior Ministry (after last Friday's prayers) to be informed of the date in private, instead of the ministry announcing it publicly". Heshmat also sees evil tidings in the fact that 14 Brotherhood activists were arrested the day before the date was announced. He is, nonetheless, determined to stand up to further provocation from the government, if necessary. The dramatic developments in and around the Damanhour re-election may signal a new downturn in the long-time enmity between the government and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on the one hand, and the Brotherhood on the other. In a statement entitled "To all conscientious people throughout the world", the Brotherhood's Cairo office urged media and human rights organisations to follow the Damanhour by-election closely, and note any attempts made by the government to rig the event, "especially in the aftermath of the farce by which Heshmat was stripped of his parliamentary membership." "In this farce," the statement continued, "the government, supported by the People's Assembly's NDP majority, decided to settle its accounts with Heshmat because of the intensive supervisory role he had exercised over its performance, especially in the two areas of culture and media." The Brotherhood sees parliament's decision to strip Heshmat of his membership as "a clear manifestation of the NDP's double standards". Heshmat said these double standards were obvious in the fact that the NDP majority "refused to take similar action against prominent NDP MPs, despite the Court of Cassation having invalidated the legality of their election." In fact, the court had said that in the case of two NDP MPs, "the polling process was rife with rigging and grave vote-counting errors." Brotherhood MPs complained to parliament Speaker Fathi Sorour that the parliament's decision to treat Heshmat differently "shows everybody that the Assembly is working against the Brotherhood and in favor of the NDP." Sorour's response was that the errors cited by the Cassation Court in this case were not grave enough to justify stripping the NDP's two MPs of their membership. Heshmat is also concerned that the government will use the same tactics used in run-off elections in Alexandria's Al-Raml district last June against him in Damanhour. Whereas two Brotherhood candidates had soundly defeated two NDP candidates in the original 2000 Al-Raml elections, the run-off election resulted in a solid NDP victory and wide- scale arrests of Brotherhood activists. In general, the Brotherhood believes that the 11 September attacks in the US gave the government a free hand to step up a long-time campaign aimed at intimidating the Brotherhood away from participating in political life. This, according to Heshmat, includes adopting arbitrary measures against the group, and arresting large numbers of its members every now and them. During a 29 December parliamentary Defense and National Security Committee meeting, El-Sayed Hozayen, one of 16 Brotherhood MPs, launched a fierce attack against the Interior Ministry, taking it to task for abusing the human rights of thousands of Islamist political detainees. "I urge the security forces to show respect for final court rulings which ordered that these political detainees be rapidly released," Hozayen said. In response, an Interior Ministry official said detentions are always conducted with full judicial supervision. The lead-up to the Damanhour battle also featured a heated verbal exchange of accusations between the Brotherhood and the Wafd Party, which began when Heshmat accused Kilig, his Wafdist rival, of conspiring with Al-Beheira security forces. Heshmat said the mayors of all the villages around Damanhour had been mobilised by security forces to help ensure Kilig's success. "The Wafd Party must not let itself be used by others," Heshmat said, "especially when we all know exactly who the real beneficiary of this battle will be." Kilig responded by accusing Heshmat of leading a "campaign of psychological terrorism" against him. Kilig poked fun at Heshmat's frequent appearances on Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, "Osama Bin Laden's favourite news channel". That, Kilig argued, was his rival's greatest achievement. Kilig estimated his chances of beating Heshmat to be almost 80 per cent. Just two days prior to the contest in Damanhour, a Wafd Party candidate, Ashraf Abul-Enein, was routed by the NDP's Essam El-Qadi in yet another Beheira by-election -- this one for the Al- Mahmoudiya district seat. The hostility between the Brotherhood and the Wafd was catalysed by Wafd parliamentary spokesman Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour's support for the NDP-driven campaign to end Heshmat's parliamentary membership. Abdel-Nour's stance also caused a major split in the Wafd's ranks as well. The party's two other parliamentarians, Mahmoud El-Shazli and Mohamed Abdel-Alim, refused to tow Abdel-Nour's line, and threatened to defect from the party if Wafd chairman No'man Gom'a ended up ordering an internal investigation of them on charges of misconduct. Abdel-Alim told Al-Ahram Weekly that it was shameful for the party's spokesman to support the NDP on this issue. "The party must vote for integrity, and rally against double standards," Abdel-Alim said.
