Opposition to changes in the electoral law is growing, writes Gamal Essam El-Din Amendments to laws regulating elections to the People's Assembly and Shura Council favour the Muslim Brotherhood and diehard ex- members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's now defunct ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), claim a majority of political parties. The amendments were approved by the cabinet on 25 September. They will now be endorsed by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which was responsible for their drafting. Once that happens a new constitutional declaration and timetable for parliamentary elections will be issued. On 27 September the SCAF announced that elections to the People's Assembly will be held over three stages, the first scheduled to begin on 28 November. The process is expected to be over by 10 January. Shura Council elections are slated to begin on 29 January and end on 11 March. The two houses of parliament will then hold an inaugural joint session on 24 March. Before Sunday's revisions the SCAF had proposed that 50 per cent of deputies be elected via party lists and the remaining half through individual candidacy. Under pressure from opposition forces the party list quota was raised to two thirds. The new legislation sets the number of elected MPs in the People's Assembly at 498. They will be supplemented by 10 presidential appointees. Elected MPs will be chosen from 83 districts covered by the individual candidacy system and 46 covered by the party list system. The 83 districts covered by individual candidacy will return 166 MPs, two per district. The 46 districts covered by the party list will return 332 MPs, the number elected in each district ranging from four to six. An electoral districts law, expected to be issued within days, will fix the number of deputies elected by each district on the basis of population density. The number of Shura Council seats will increase from 264 to 270. A third of council members will be appointed by the president. The remainder will be elected from 60 districts, half covered by individual candidacy, the other half by party lists. The first will return two MPs per district. The 30 districts covered by the party list system will return 120 members. Minister of Local Development Mohamed Attia announced that "a constitutional declaration will be soon issued fixing the regulations governing elections to the People's Assembly and Shura Council and the details of the party- list and individual candidacy system". "A constitutional declaration is necessary in order to avoid the results being contested before the Supreme Constitutional Court." Publication of details of the amendments provoked a rush of responses, the majority negative. The Wafd Party appeared confused. Initially it welcomed the amendments. Then the party chairman, El-Sayed El-Badawi, denounced the changes as "a big setback". "They contradict the will of the people and the demands of the 25 January Revolution by allowing NDP diehards to run as independents via the individual candidacy system," said El-Badawi. "The changes will also prevent members of political parties and youth movements of the 25 January Revolution from standing as independents and rejoining parties after they win seats in parliament." A Wafd meeting is expected today to give a final say about the amendments. The Muslim Brotherhood was more reserved in its response to the new amendments, saying it was disappointed that "the changes fall short of abolishing individual candidacy altogether." Individual candidacy has been blamed for the proliferation of electoral fraud, vote buying and intimidation under Hosni Mubarak. A statement from the Democratic Alliance, which includes 36 political parties, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd among them, warned that maintaining the individual candidacy system would allow the return to parliament of the officials and corrupt businessmen who dominated the Mubarak regime's NDP. Non-Brotherhood Islamist forces, especially the Salafist parties and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, welcomed the amendments. Safwat Abdel-Ghani, a leading member of the latter, said "we have no objections to the new amendments as long as they do not cause any delay in organising parliamentary elections". Rifaat El-Said, chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party, complained that "the amendments serve two groups: the Muslim Brotherhood and the diehards of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's defunct ruling NDP". "Both command the kind of financial leverage which allows them to influence voting in large constituencies." Ahmed El-Fadali, chairman of the Democratic Peace Party, agrees with El-Said. "Small and average-sized political parties lack the financial and political clout to compete with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Wafd Party in these enormous districts." Worse, says El-Fadali, the new amendments will force smaller and new parties to enter into alliances with the big parties rather than field candidates as independents". Ayman Nour, chairman of the Ghad Party also attacked the amendments, insisting that they "serve NDP diehards who will exploit the districts covered by the individual candidacy system to engineer a return to parliament". The 25 January Revolution's youth movements also found themselves at loggerheads. The Coalition of the 25 January Revolution gave a cautious welcome to the changes, announcing that 200 of its members will stand on a single ticket. Members of the 6 April Youth Movement, however, criticised the amendments. "They will work to deprive political forces that have only recently joined the political scene of the ability to campaign and gain the confidence of voters," says Mahmoud Afifi, a spokesman for the 6 April Youth Movement. Mohamed Ragab, former secretary-general of the NDP, accused the Wafd Party of hypocrisy. "The Wafd's popularity on the street disappeared a long time ago. Now it wants the SCAF to draft an electoral law tailored to its needs," said Ragab. "The Wafd refused point blank to take part in the opposition boycott of the 2010 parliamentary elections even though they were held exclusively under the individual candidacy system. Suddenly they have discovered that they want that system scrapped." "The Wafd candidates are unpopular. The party knows that they will not be able to beat ex- NDP MPs who remain influential in their constituencies whatever the electoral system." Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst at Al-Ahram, believes the amendments "give leverage to remnants of the former regime to use their money and other corrupt methods to beat their opponents" in independent constituencies, and will help Brotherhood candidates to win seats in those districts where party lists are applied.
