Newspapers this week had an array of controversial subjects to write about, prime among them were the third and fourth sessions in the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the parliamentary and election districts laws and the million-man strong "Friday of Returning to Course", planned for tomorrow. Front page headlines on Tuesday were primarily concerned with the third session in the trial implicating Mubarak and former interior minister Habib El-Adli of killing protesters during the 25 January Revolution. Monday's session witnessed a commotion between supporters of the ousted president and the families of the martyrs in and outside of the courtroom. Al-Wafd bannered, 'Trial turns to battlefield... fight with rocks and shoes'. Unlike the previous sessions the trial wasn't aired, and bore many surprises. Al-Masry Al-Youm revealed 'First witness on behalf of Mubarak is a convicted criminal'. Al-Ahram headlined 'Police were armed with live ammunition to confront demonstrators' as revealed by high-profile Interior Ministry officials. The daily paper further elaborated that "according to the head of central security communications, the weapons were transported in ambulances." The daily Al-Akhbar dedicated the front page of its Tuesday edition to pictures taken in front of the courthouse of a crying mother of a demonstrator who was killed, pro-Mubarak supporters and police attempts to disperse the gathering crowd along with a headline, '11 wounded and 22 arrested in fight between Mubarak's supporters and the families of the martyrs'. Al-Wafd on Monday reported the arrival to Cairo of five Kuwaiti lawyers to join the defence team of Hosni Mubarak. The Kuwaitis said they wanted to "return the favour to Mubarak for standing up against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait." On the same day Al-Akhbar published an interview with Khaled Abu Bakr, a prominent lawyer handling the case of the killing of protesters. Abu Bakr told the daily newspaper that holding the key to revealing the truth in this case were: Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who should reveal whether he had received orders from Mubarak to disperse the protesters by the use of force during the revolution; the Muslim Brotherhood's Essam El-Erian on whether his group was supported by Hamas or Hizbullah members to create a state of insecurity to the Egyptian regime; and finally Omar Suleiman, ex-vice president and chief of General Intelligence. Abu Bakr said he expected the final verdict in this case will be announced in 2013. Mubarak's ongoing trial did not, however, divert the public's attention from the anticipated 9/9 Friday of Returning to Course. Al-Badil reported on its website that various political groups are calling for the million-man demonstration to voice a list of demands that include protesting at the parliamentary and electoral districts laws, the immediate seizure of military trials for citizens, setting minimum and maximum wages, stopping gas exports to Israel, expelling the Israeli ambassador, revising the Camp David accords and charging the Mubaraks with high treason. The long list of demands invited Salah Eissa to write in his back page column in Al-Masry Al-Youm that, "million-man protests are meant to express common national interests, not for various political groups to point out their different opinions. The 9 September demonstration should be held to only amend the electoral system" so that it will not lose its focus. For their part, the Wafd Party announced in its mouthpiece Al-Wafd that it will not participate in tomorrow's protest, stating that, "it's an attempt on the part of counter-revolutionary forces to prevent Egypt from attaining its 25 January goals for which many sacrificed their lives." In Al-Ahram, Islamist groups also announced they were boycotting the 9/9 demonstration because, in the words of Salafi Yasser Borhami, "it is an obvious attempt to go against the people's will and call for the constitution first... we refuse this kind of protests because they call for a civil state." The new electoral districts law caused an uproar this week amongst the majority of political groups which rejected dividing parliamentary electioneering according to the individual candidacy system as well as party slates. Whereas revolutionary youth groups and civil parties decried the law on the grounds that it will lead to religious groups and the remnants of the former ruling National Democratic Party controlling the ballot boxes, Salafi groups welcomed what they described was the fairness of the law. Al-Ahram reported that six parties, including Karama, Wasat and Socialist Democratic, have threatened to boycott the elections in protest at the law. Perhaps more vocal than others in criticising the electoral districts law were researchers Amr El-Shobaki and Diaa Rashwan. In their columns in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, both agreed that the new law was a step back to the practices of the corrupt regime of the ousted president -- practices against which the people revolted. Merging the candidates and lists systems, as described by El-Shobaki, was "meant to satisfy all parties and ended up pleasing none". Dividing the districts between the two systems, the writer believes, "has rendered the law colourless and made it devoid of any of the two systems' merits." Rashwan's hopes were dashed by the parliamentary and election districts laws. "The parliamentary election was the only door that will usher the revolution into a new regime and a modern state the Egyptians long dreamed of. The next parliament is meant to form the first post-revolution government that reflects the balance of political powers and will assign a committee to write the constitution that should be the answer to the suppressed aspirations of the people." The electoral districts law, Rashwan continued, "opens the gates of inferno and gives a historic chance to dissolved NDP ranks to hijack the revolution." The division in half between the party and individual candidacy system has led Rashwan to calculate the chances of political powers' representation in the next People's Assembly. For ex-NDP members he estimated a 30 per cent presence as individuals and more than 20 per cent in party lists, while "25 per cent will go to Islamists, 15 per cent to other political groups, and the remaining 10 per cent will be dispersed among those hesitant between supporting the revolution and their loyalty to the former regime." Rashwan, whereas starting his column on an optimistic note, couldn't but see a grim picture at the end. "Our first free elections in our modern history are turning, through this dual election districts system, into the end of the greatest revolution in our history and will see the return of the country's enemies who will form a 'democratically' elected majority." In the independent daily Al-Shorouk on Saturday Howeida Adli opined that political groups calling for a civil state should look away from Tahrir now that parliamentary elections are near. Instead, "they should go where the voters are and take the debate from the elite to the street." Adli, who is a political science professor at the National Centre for Social Studies, linked the rise of the civil political groups to their ability to connect politics with people's daily lives. The writer stressed the importance of making the poor aware that buying their votes will leave them captive to poverty. Addressing political groups, Adli wrote, "the poor don't care about a civil state as much as they are concerned about alleviating their economic and social standards... They also have to understand that a civil state doesn't conflict with religion, but it regulates the relationship between the two."
