The game ahead

As the countdown begins for Shura Council elections, the forthcoming poll is being overshadowed by the confrontation between the state and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Gamal Essam El-Din surveys the setting and, reporting from the People's Assembly, anticipates the Brothers' revenge
The game ahead
The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has charged that at least 20 of its members have been subjected to a two-week police harassment campaign in a determined effort by security forces to intimidate them from running in the mid-term elections of the Shura Council. But leading officials at the Interior Ministry insist that they cannot watch with folded arms the attempts of an outlawed group to incite unrest and revive its illegal activities.
Before dawn on Sunday, Brotherhood officials said, 11 group members were arrested in Alexandria by security forces. Security sources said the 11 were arrested on orders of the prosecutor-general, and are charged with reviving the activities of an unlawful organisation and the possession of leaflets calling for the overthrow of the government regime.
Topping the list of those arrested are two of the Brotherhood's leading symbols: Mohamed Abdel-Moneim and Gamal Madi. The two were previously arrested ahead of the 1995 People's Assembly elections and sentenced by a military court to three years in prison.
The list also includes three engineers: Gamal Imam, Ibrahim El-Said and Ahmed Mikhimar, and two lawyers: Hassan Saleh and Usama Gadou. The others are two school teachers, Talaat Fahmi and Hamdi Abdel-Halim, a doctor, Mahmoud El-Fiki, and an accountant, Mahmoud Awad.
According to Brotherhood sources, three group members were also arrested while applying for candidacy in Al-Sharqiya governorate, while other members in other governorates were subjected to police harassment. In the Upper Egyptian governorates of Minya and Beni Suef, seven Brotherhood members were allegedly intimidated by police which prevented them from standing in the Shura elections. In Alexandria and Giza governorates, the registration papers of group members Mohamed Amer and Salah Mubarak were rejected out of hand by the security departments.
Although registration for the elections ended on 23 April, it is still not clear how many Brothers are running. Brotherhood sources initially said that about 20 members would run as independents. But only seven candidates have been identified as Brotherhood so far. The seven candidates identified as running for the Brotherhood are Hamdi Zahran and Abdel-Latif Qotb in Beni Suef, Hussein Sab'a in Daqahliya, El-Qotb El-Ashmouni in Gharbiya, Mustafa Mahdi in Minya, Mohamed Amer in Giza and Salah Mubarak in Alexandria. Others with an Islamist orientation also managed to apply for candidature in the Shura elections, most of them members of the defunct Labour Party. They are Mohsen Hashem in Qaliubiya, and Ibrahim Abdel-Malek and Khaled El-Zaafarani in Alexandria. Hashem is an agronomist who was dismissed from his job by Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali for objecting to normalising agricultural relations with Israel.
In all, the number of candidates running for 88 Shura seats in 67 constituencies stands at 851, compared with almost 400 in 1998. As in last year's People's Assembly elections, most nominees are either official members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) or NDP members running independently. There are 92 official NDP candidates. The number of NDP independents stands at 488.
Contrary to earlier expectations, the number of candidates of opposition parties is modest. But compared with previous elections which were boycotted by opposition parties, the number is relatively significant. The number of candidates fielded by seven opposition parties stands at 26. This comprises 11 candidates from the liberal Wafd Party, three from each of the leftist Tagammu and Nasserist parties, five from the Ummah (Nation) Party, three from the Islamist-oriented Labour Party and one from Al-Ahrar (Liberal Oriental Party). The remaining candidates are non-affiliated Independents. Of the 851 on the list, 22 are women and five are Christians.
If these Shura elections are to promise any stiff competition, it will be between the NDP's official candidates and those who have come to be called NDP-independents (or members of NDP running independently). The figures mean that the NDP, with its official and independent candidates, is certain to win about 90 per cent of the 88 seats up for grabs.
At present, Cairo leads other governorates in terms of the number of candidates (64) as well as the expected stiff competition. This is largely because ever greater numbers of businessmen are ruthlessly attempting to gain a foothold in the People's Assembly or Shura Council. In Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district, the competition seems to be confined to a struggle among four businessmen, with NDP candidate Farag El-Rawas, an agent of an international Japanese auto-maker, facing three rival businessmen: Said Shabayek, Reda Elwan and Ahmed Salama..
In the Gamaliya district of Cairo, independent Gamila Ismail, a TV announcer and the wife of Ayman Nour, a young MP who was expelled from the Wafd Party, is running against NDP veteran Mohamed Ragab. Ismail is supported by Rami Lakah, a Christian businessman who managed to win a seat in the People's Assembly last year. Ragab has warned repeatedly that the individual candidacy system should be revamped because it gives wealthy businessmen the opportunity to invade parliament. Ragab has been a member of the Shura Council since its establishment in 1980 and acts as its NDP speaker.
In the Cairo district of Qasr El-Nil, Nabih El-Alakami, the NDP secretary for youth affairs, will be fighting a strange battle against his own assistant, Ali Shamseddin, the NDP assistant secretary for youth affairs. El-Alakami has accused Shamseddin of nominating himself with the purpose of not only gaining a seat in the Shura Council but also of taking over his (El-Alakami's) position as youth secretary. Shamseddin is a businessman engaged in contracting.
In the Al-Azbakiya district of Cairo, Essam Abbas, chairman of the Arab Contractors Investment Company and deputy chairman of Cairo's City Council, will run against NDP candidate Helmi El-Geziri, a member of Cairo's City Council. Abbas is also chairman of the Housing Committee of Cairo's NDP office.
The confrontation between the NDP official candidates and the NDP independents is especially fierce in Gharbiya governorate. At least six NDP members of the outgoing People's Assembly will run against NDP official candidates.
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The Brothers strike back
Shura showdown 26 April - 2 May 2001
Shura elections promise stiff competition 19 - 25 April 2001
See Elections 2000
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