No opposition in municipalities

As the ruling party swept local council elections last week, critics complained the overwhelming NDP gain is democracy's loss. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
A week after 8 April's municipal elections, in which the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 97 per cent of the contested seats, members of the newly elected local councils held their first meeting on Wednesday to select council chairmen and deputies.
According to Minister of Local Development Mustafa Abdel-Qader, 59,708 candidates vied for 49,522 seats at the village, district, town, city and governorate levels in last week's elections. For technical and judicial reasons, Abdel- Qader said, the candidates competed for 47,346 seats only. Candidates are suing for the remaining 2,176 seats, which will have to be filled once verdicts are out.
Abdel-Qader said the NDP won 45,943 seats, having already secured an unopposed 25,804 seats (52.1 per cent) seven days ahead of the election date. On election day, the NDP won an additional 20,139 seats (44.9 per cent).
The remaining 1,403 seats (three per cent) were clinched by independent and opposition candidates, with independent candidates winning 1,239 seats (2.6 per cent). Informed NDP sources said most independent candidates were either NDP members running independently or independents intending to join the party's ranks in the near future, which translates into a 99.6 per cent victory for NDP.
The remaining 164 seats (0.4 per cent) were gained by five opposition parties. The liberal-oriented Wafd Party won a mere 142 seats or 0.3 per cent. The three opposition parties -- Tagammu, Arab Nasserist, Al-Ahrar (liberal) and Misr Al- Fattah -- won 22 seats or 0.1 per cent.
Out of a total 1,035 women candidates, 774 won seats -- 750 were NDP candidates, 22 were independent and two belonged to the Wafd Party.
Abdel-Qader said that out of the 47,346 winners, 3,223 won governorate seats, 12,920 won town seats, 5,170 won city seats, 1,364 won district seats and 24,669 won village seats.
Although local newspapers said turnout rates were very low, Interior Ministry sources declined to provide reports on actual figures. An opposition newspaper claimed that the turnout was low because NDP's victory was almost a foregone conclusion. "Egyptian citizens were also too distracted by Israel's savage war against the Palestinians to pay much attention to the elections. In the Giza governorate, for example, the turnout rate did not exceed five per cent," the paper said.
Fahmi Howeidy, a prominent columnist with the Al-Ahram daily, wondered how the NDP was able to gather such overwhelming support when it failed to organise any pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Defending the party, NDP leaders said its success clearly reflected its popularity among the masses. Kamal El-Shazli, minister of state for parliamentary affairs and NDP's assistant secretary-general, said NDP's staggering victory was no surprise. Addressing the party's Political Club on Saturday, El-Shazli said the NDP had planned well for the municipal elections. "The electoral college system the NDP adopted for the first time in Egypt's political history for selecting its candidates proved a great success. Party members undertake the responsibility to select their candidates through open ballot under this system, which produced highly credible and well-reputed candidates," he said.
The outcome of the municipal elections dealt a heavy blow to opposition parties, especially the Wafd. Statistics show that six opposition parties fielded 1,034 candidates only. Out of this total, 758 belonged to Wafd and 276 belonged to the other five parties.
The Wafd's inability to secure more seats is now considered the second setback to the party in less than two years. The first one came shortly before the 2000 parliamentary elections when No'man Gomaa, the party's chairman, said Wafd would win at least 100 seats. The party won only seven.
Shortly before the municipal elections, Gomaa said the Wafd would fare much better than it did in the parliamentary elections. Gomaa also appealed to President Hosni Mubarak to prevent security forces from manipulating the elections in favour of the NDP.
Al-Wafd newspaper, mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, which made a great deal of noise about the party's expected success before the elections, remained silent after the results were out.
Fouad Badrawi, a Wafdist MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Wafd's poor performance should be considered a shock not only to Wafdists, but to all those interested in democratising Egypt's political life.
Ayman Nour, an ex-Wafdist MP, blamed the Wafd chairman for the party's poor showing. "Gomaa's strategy in contesting elections is based on quantity rather than quality. Gomaa aims to field as many candidates as possible regardless of their capability of winning seats," he said.
Pundits believe opposition parties did badly because of NDPs omnipotence and defects in the Local Administration Law. Gamal Heshmat, one of 17 Muslim Brotherhood MPs, said the fact that all provincial governors and members of executive councils are NDP members ensures NDP's overwhelming victory in local elections.
Also, since the Local Administration Law, drafted in 1960, does not bar members of the executive municipalities from contesting the people's local council elections, the councils' supervisory role over executive municipalities is disabled. "Members of the people's local councils are also, in most cases, members of the executive municipalities. This breeds corruption and kills democratisation," Heshmat said.
Recommend this page
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor