Islamist forces are strongly gearing up for the upcoming parliamentary elections, reports Amani Maged Against the backdrop of the Islamists' political jockeying and their preparations for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, people are wondering how much weight they really do carry in society and how equipped they are for the campaigns. The public is also asking how the Islamists stand on the electoral law and the delineation of voting districts, whether they will participate in the Friday of Returning to Course demonstrations tomorrow, 9 September, and how likely it is that they will come together as a single electoral coalition against the liberals and secularists. Both Islamist and liberal forces are of the opinion that the current provisions for the parliamentary elections, which will combine the electoral list and individual candidacy systems, favour the remnants of the once ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), who stand to gain some 30 per cent of the seats in the People's Assembly and Shura Council. Yet, as strongly as they might object to these provisions, Islamist forces -- the Freedom and Justice Party, the Salafi parties and the parties of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya and the Jihad -- have announced that they will not take part in the million-man march on Friday. Meanwhile, the Islamists are busily gearing up for the elections. The Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, was the first to announce that it is all set for the campaigns. In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekl y, Ahmed Abu Baraka, a leading member of the party, said that 504 people are running as Freedom and Justice Party candidates for the People's Assembly and another 390 names have been proposed as Shura Council candidates. Out of these, the party will select 252 and 195 candidates, respectively, or a total of 447 candidates for both houses of parliament. Abu Baraka confirmed his party's previously declared commitment not to contend more than 50 per cent of the seats in parliament. The candidates themselves will be selected on the basis of a set of stringent criteria such as competence, discipline, previous service in parliament and political record. Abu Baraka added that while Brotherhood members who were MPs in the previous People's Assembly will be on the candidates' list, it has yet to be determined whether Freedom and Justice leaders themselves will be fielded in the polls. What is certain is that a number of well-known, popular and influential Muslim Brotherhood figures will top the party's 'A List' of nominees, which will be announced in mid-September. Another party with an Islamic frame of reference, the Labour Party, will be fielding candidates in all governorates. Several days ago, it announced that it would join the Democratic Coalition for Egypt and that it had prepared a preliminary list of People's Assembly candidates which consists of 55 nominees to be fielded in 12 governorates. Al-Nour, a recently formed Salafi party, has also declared itself ready for the elections. Yosri Hamad, a member of the party's central committee, has welcomed the official announcement of nominees at the end of the month. The timing is "very appropriate and it was expected," he said. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya and the Jihad are also in the process of drawing up a list of candidates, but neither organisation has revealed details apart from the fact that they plan to concentrate their candidates in Upper Egypt where their prospects are stronger. The Salafis, for their part, are likely to avoid putting too much effort in the Alexandria governorate where they would encounter stiff competition from the Muslim Brotherhood, which is more tightly organised and more experienced in electoral campaigns. Some observers believe that the Islamists will try to form an electoral alliance, especially in view of the anticipated competition between them and the secularist trends, on the one hand, and the general consensus that has arisen among the various Islamist trends since the revolution, on the other. Ali Abdel-Aal, an expert on Islamist movements, cites a number of issues with respect to which Islamist forces in Egypt have demonstrated a strong desire to unify their positions and coordinate their efforts. Prime among them are their support in favour of the constitutional amendments in the March referendum; the demand to retain Article 2 of the former constitution; their opposition to postponing parliamentary elections and to drafting a constitution first; turning out for a mass demonstration on 29 July; their opposition to "supra-constitutional" principles; and their reservations on the Al-Azhar document in this regard, even though they accepted it in principle. Mounting challenges both at home and abroad are also compelling them to join forces. As their opponents are summoning the resolve to unify and form electoral coalitions against the Islamists, Islamist youth, in particular, are urging unity of ranks and united stances, although they are simultaneously conscious of international anxieties concerning the prospect of a significant Islamist majority in the forthcoming parliament. With post-revolutionary freedom that offered Islamist forces new horizons for political involvement, dozens of pages have emerged on social networking sites such as Facebook urging Islamist forces to set aside their differences and unify ranks. Meanwhile, on the ground, the recently formed Coordinating Body for Islamist Political Action consists of young Islamist men and women dedicated to a single goal -- to promote a formula for consensus among all organisations and entities with an Islamic frame of reference. According to the founders, the realisation of this goal is a necessary preliminary to the creation of unified Islamist lists for the upcoming elections and, at a broader level, the development of an Islamist roadmap for political action and mechanisms to stimulate and enhance the role of affiliates to the Islamist trend. To most, if not all, Islamists, the common ground between their various groups is far greater than the differences that separate them. They share an ideological outlook that takes as its primary authority the Islamic scriptures (the Quran and the Sunna) and they largely converge on a general vision and common goals and aspirations, even if they differ on subsidiary issues. Over the past six decades in Egypt, secularist regimes, which largely regarded Islamists as a security threat, formed the chief obstacle to collective Islamist action. Now that the dictatorships have fallen, Islamists have an open field to communicate, consult and work with each other on the issues that most concern them. This is not to suggest that Islamist efforts to unify and join forces are a product of the revolution. There were numerous instances of common cause long before this. For example, regardless of how some of their priorities may have differed with those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis supported Muslim Brotherhood candidates in the elections of the occupational syndicates and student federations. In an essay 'The Salafist position with respect to parliamentary elections', Sheikh Mohamed Ismail El-Muqaddam wrote, "Should a person take part in elections in order to vote for a Muslim Brotherhood candidate we would not reproach him. Rather we would respect the doctrinal differences on this matter, especially if that candidate were competing against another who is hostile to Islam." He added, "there may be some good in these [parliamentary] assemblies, which would please us considerably. So let them [the Muslim Brothers] try to promote reform through these assemblies." Many leaders and prominent figures from across the Islamist spectrum have also been urging Islamists to join forces. Foremost among them are Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, Sheikh Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, Sheikh Ahmed El-Naqib, Safwat Higazi, Mohamed Yosri Ibrahim, Jihadist leaders Aboud and Tareq El-Zomor and Abdel-Rahman El-Barr. The Salafi proselytiser Sheikh Ahmed El-Naqib has described the Muslim Brothers as "the closest people to us and their victory, in fact, would be a victory for Islam." In a similar spirit, Sheikh Mohamed Hassan said, in reference to the forthcoming parliamentary elections, "the persons who would be the best candidates are the Muslim Brothers in view of their political expertise. There should be solidarity with them on the part of affiliates to the Salafist school." One Muslim Brotherhood official, at least, is confident of the support of the Salafis and members of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. Ali Omran, a member of the Freedom and Justice Party's administrative bureau in Minya, said, "The Muslim Brotherhood's relationship with the Salafis and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya have always been strong, before the revolution and after. They are our cherished friends and they will support us and stand by our side in any elections." Still, the scholar Abdel-Aal has some reservations. He believes that tensions may arise between some of the trends, especially in the event that several Islamist candidates from different groups become electoral rivals and partisan feelings prevail. It is precisely to avert such a scenario that leading Islamist figures have urged closer communication and coordination to ensure that no electoral district has Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi or Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya candidates running against each other.
