Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary election opened yesterday. Gamal Essam El-Din examines what is in store Campaigning in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since the fall of Mubarak -- including both the People's Assembly and Shura Council -- began yesterday though final lists of candidates remain incomplete. The Higher Electoral Committee (HEC) announced that "appeals filed against candidates over the two days of 30 and 31 October have been examined�ê� and the final lists will remain subject to revision until 8 November". On 24 October the HEC published a preliminary list of candidates competing for People's Assembly seats. Close to 6,600 candidates had registered to compete for the third of seats reserved for independents. Representatives of more than 50 political parties will battle over the remaining two thirds. The number of candidates on each party list differs, with some parties placing more than 20 on a single list. Voters will be required to elect a fixed number of party-based candidates depending on the voting district. North Cairo will elect 10 party-based deputies while Nasr City will elect eight. Cairo's four districts covered by the party list system will return 36 MPs. The city is also divided into nine districts which will produce 18 MPs standing as independents. When the poll is over voters will have selected 498 deputies to the People's Assembly. An additional 10 deputies will be appointed. The first stage of elections will be held between 28 November and 5 December and includes Egypt's most populous governorates, Cairo and Alexandria, as well as Fayoum, Port Said, Damietta, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Assiut, Luxor and the Red Sea. On 1 November HEC Chairman Abdel-Moez Ibrahim said he was pleased a majority of political forces had refrained from campaigning before the elections officially opened. It was a sign, he argued, that the HEC's regulations would be respected. Ibrahim also revealed the symbols political parties had adopted for the purposes of campaigning. The Tagammu Party opted for a watch, the Wafd Party for a palm. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party will use scales on its campaign literature, the Salafist Nour Party a lantern. The HEC will face an uphill battle against the use of religious slogans. The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has already said it will campaign under the slogan Islam is the Solution. Candidates found guilty of violating the election rules -- the raising of religious slogans among them -- will face harsh penalties, says Ibrahim. "They could be sent to prison or stripped of their right to stand." Ibrahim added that election campaigns will stop 48 hours before voting day. The kind of religious sloganeering embodied by the Brotherhood's Islam is the Solution is one of the great dangers facing the elections, says political analyst Amr El-Shobaki. "It is a sectarian slogan, a reflection of the seemingly unstoppable tendency to use religion to secure political gains." By raising the slogan the Muslim Brotherhood is saying that what it believes to be right trumps any legislation, that it is, in practice, above the law. The HEC will also face problems implementing the recent judicial order that expatriate Egyptians be allowed to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections. It is logistically impossible, says Ibrahim, to place polling stations in foreign countries under judicial supervision, and Egyptian diplomats overseas cannot legally replace judges in overseeing the ballot. Minister of Justice Mohamed Abdel-Aziz El-Guindi is consulting with the HEC in an attempt to find a way out of the deadlock and allow Egyptians abroad to vote. Official sources said yesterday that expatriates will be allowed to use their passports for voting in their consulates and without judicial supervision. In the meantime, the controversy over whether former members of Mubarak's now disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) should be barred from participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections rumbles on. On 31 October Deputy Prime Minister Ali El-Silmi disclosed that a law barring anyone found guilty of corrupting political life was due to be ratified by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) within days. It will not automatically bar former NDP members who have registered as candidates from standing but allow citizens to file complaints against anyone suspected of corrupting political life. "If the complaints are well-documented judges could then disqualify candidates," says El-Silmi. While a majority of NDP diehards, including former MPs and businessmen linked to Mubarak, will contest the elections as independents, they also dominate the candidate lists of the Horreya (Freedom) and Egyptian Citizen parties. On 1 November El-Silmi held a conference to discuss the drafting of a new constitution. It attracted the ire of Islamist forces. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Reconstruction and Development Party were loud in their denunciation. They made it clear that it was the responsibility of the newly elected assembly to select the members of the 100-person committee that would be charged with writing a constitution. Muslim Brotherhood leaders asked El-Silmi to resign after they described his draft on inviolable principles as "a constitutional coup", and urged all forces to mobilise against the draft. Other forces protested against El-Silmi's document on the grounds that it gives the SCAF more power in the coming phase. They said the draft allows the SCAF to interfere in pacts related to war affairs in addition to giving the SCAF the right to intervene should Egypt is declared a religious state by Islamist forces. Secular forces fear the Islamist parties are banking on winning a majority of seats in the coming parliament in order to force their religious views on Egypt's new constitution. "The drafting of Egypt's next constitution cannot be monopolised by any group," said El-Silmi in response to the Islamist attacks. "It must reflect a consensus of all forces seeking a secure future for Egypt." Tagammu Party Chairman Rifaat El-Said, a fierce Brotherhood critic, appealed to secular and liberal forces to unite against any attempt to impose a religious constitution. (see pp.2-5)
