Mona El-Nahhas profiles some of the newly founded liberal and leftist parties running in the forthcoming parliamentary elections The political map of Egypt completely changed in the wake of the 25 January Revolution, with new alliances and blocs being formed and new parties founded. Political forces, especially Islamist ones, banned under the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak have been heading polls across the country, and members of the former ruling and now dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP), who used to boast of their ties with decision-making circles are now keen to hide such associations. Some former members of the NDP have started to found liberal political parties bearing the name of the revolution, like the Egyptian Revolution Party, the Egyptian National Party, the Awareness and Union Party and the Egyptian Citizen Party. Alternatively, they have joined other newly-founded political parties. Against this background, news of the founding of new political parties has been coming through on an almost daily basis. Thanks to the new political parties law issued in March many of the former shackles hindering the foundation of political parties have been removed, and since the issuing of the law some 30 new political parties have come onto the scene, raising the number of parties in Egypt to 50 or so, double the 24 that existed under the former regime. The leftist parties have a limited presence among these new parties, with only the Dignity Party and the Socialist People's Alliance Party appearing on the list. Centre parties are represented by the Justice Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and the Egypt Civilisation Party, along with others like the Guards of the Revolution Party and the Egyptian Arab Union Party. A large number of liberal parties have been founded, presumably due to the entry of many businessmen into the political arena with the intention of combating the Islamist trend. The Free Egyptians Party, Egypt Freedom Party, Free Egypt Party, Equality and Development Party and Awareness Party are among these, adding up to around 15. These parties, diverse ideologically and professing different goals, all hope to take part in designing Egypt's future. Right-wing, left-wing, centrist and liberal parties, now officially licensed, are gearing up for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, some concentrating on building a strong public profile and others preferring to join electoral coalitions in the hope of winning parliamentary seats. However, analysts argue that it may not be easy for all these parties to make their presence felt on the country's electoral scene. A majority of them face challenges, particularly financial ones. Bearing in mind that most were founded just a few months ago, they have also had little time to prepare detailed programmes or acquaint the public with their manifestos. Apart from seven or eight of the new parties that are familiar to the public because of the names of their founders, the rest may look like just a list of names. As analyst Emad Gad puts it, "for these reasons, it would be unfair to think of the upcoming parliamentary elections as a real indication of the influence of these parties. Instead, we should wait for next year's polls before making predictions about which of the parties will survive." Egypt's newly founded liberal, centre and leftist parties include: THE EGYPTIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Registered in July, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party is a centrist party that has around 100,000 members, according to party sources. These come from various political backgrounds and social categories, and the party includes many prominent politicians and intellectuals among its members, among them Mohamed Abul-Ghar, a leading member of the 9 March Movement for the Independence of the Universities. The party's programme stresses the construction of a civil state on the basis of shared citizenship, freedom, democracy and justice. It presents itself as attempting to maintain a balance between liberal ideology and socialism, while at the same time stressing social justice. While adopting free-market economic policies, the party also recognises the role of the state in combating monopoly and in ensuring a just distribution of wealth. The party emphasises the need to improve the living standards of all Egyptians and the services that are offered them, including healthcare and education. The party also calls for guarantees of the political, economic and social rights of individuals, together with respect for their personal freedoms. As far as the country's new constitution is concerned, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party calls for a presidential and parliamentary system, which would give the president significant powers while also strengthening the powers of the parliament. In the forthcoming parliamentary elections, the party will be running as a member of the Egyptian Bloc, a coalition of liberal and leftist parties omitting Islamist party representation. Some 200 candidates from the party will be running in the elections on the Bloc's electoral lists, with a further 50 running for individual seats. Among the prominent party candidates are political analyst Emad Gad, running in the Northern Cairo constituency, and legal expert Nour Farahat, running in the Sharqiya governorate. THE FREE EGYPTIANS PARTY: Founded in April by Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris among others, the Free Egyptians Party has a liberal programme, and there has been speculation that its purpose is to fight the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the parliamentary elections. Though newly founded, the party has already garnered a considerable membership of several thousand people. The party is believed to be comparatively well financed, and, according to party sources, it now has some 130,000 members. Its aim now is to widen its appeal to all Egyptians. The Free Egyptians Party advocates a civil and democratic state, where all citizens enjoy equal rights without religious or other forms of discrimination. As a liberal party, it emphasises individual freedoms and the respect for human rights. The party will also be fighting this month's elections as part of the Egyptian Bloc. Some 388 candidates are thought to be standing, most of them on the Bloc's electoral lists and the rest competing for individual seats. Businessman Basel Adel will run in the Eastern Cairo constituency, and Sufi Sheikh Tareq El-Refaai will compete for an individual seat in the Cairo district of Dokki. Hani Serrieddin, a member of the party's political bureau, says that the party may have difficulty imposing its ideas given the large number of other liberal parties also standing in the elections. According to Serrieddin, the party is not against the Islamist trend, but it opposes the use of religion for political gain. The party has criticised the Freedom and Justice Party for using religious slogans in its electoral material, arguing that this violates rules set out by the Supreme Elections Committee. The Free Egyptians Party suffered a minor crisis recently, when party members in some provinces submitted their resignation to protest against the presence of members of the former ruling NDP on the party's electoral lists. Party leaders denied that there were "remnants of the former regime" on the lists, saying that the arrangement of the names of members on the lists was the real reason behind the resignations. THE SOCIALIST PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE PARTY: Founded in September, the Socialist People's Alliance Party, a leftist party, was the first leftist party to submit registration papers to the country's Political Parties Committee after the January Revolution. Its membership includes prominent left-wing activists and public figures, and many party members, led by Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, are dissidents from the older leftist Tagammu Party, having quit the latter in protest at the way it was being run by chairman Rifaat El-Said. El-Said has been accused of abandoning the Tagammu's original left-wing line and being close to the former regime. News that El-Said had made an electoral deal with the former regime prior to the 2010 parliamentary polls was the straw that broke the camel's back, leading dozens of prominent Tagammu members to depart. The Socialist People's Alliance Party's programme emphasises what it calls a restoration of left-wing ideology to Egypt's political scene, rejecting capitalist exploitation and seeing itself as acting on behalf of the poor. Development plans should be drafted with poorer people explicitly in mind, the party says, wanting to see wages linked to prices as a way of safeguarding livelihoods and incomes. The party argues for greater redistribution of wealth in Egypt. Regarding foreign policy, it argues against normalisation with Israel and supports the struggle of the Palestinians. In response to questions about the comparative weakness of the left in Egypt, Shukr said that the party intended to reach out to all Egyptians, simplifying its language and abandoning traditional elitism. Until last month, the Alliance was also a member of the Egyptian Bloc, then deciding to exit the coalition and form a new one with six other political parties and movements, two of them liberal and the others left-wing in orientation. According to party members, disagreements over the selection of candidates for the Bloc's electoral lists were the main reasons behind the decision, it being no secret that Egyptian Bloc lists include the names of former NDP MPs. "Members of the new coalition have prepared some 34 electoral lists," commented Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, a former MP who is running in Alexandria and a former Tagammu member. The actress Tayseer Fahmi, a founder of the liberal Equality and Development Party, will also be running in the Western Cairo constituency on the coalition's list. THE KARAMA PARTY: The Dignity, or Karama, Party was established in 1997 after its founder, Hamdeen Sabahi, left the older Nasserist Party, but it was only officially recognised in August. Sabahi, who will also be running for president in the next presidential elections, presented the party's registration to the country's political parties committee many times between 1997 and 2011, but registration was always denied. After its official registration earlier this year, the Karama Party entered a period of restructuring, opening new offices across Egypt and widening its membership. The party describes itself as a nationalist party with a programme that stresses the alleviation of poverty, self-sufficiency of production and social justice. It calls for restoring Egypt's role as the leading country in the Arab and Islamic world. The party will be running in the parliamentary polls as a member of the Democratic Coalition for Egypt, a coalition headed by the Islamist Freedom and Justice Party. It is reportedly planning to field around 100 candidates, among them the leading Nasserists Saad Abboud and Amin Iskandar. THE JUSTICE PARTY: A centrist party, the Justice was founded in June, and it has benefited from financial support from several leading businessmen. According to Mustafa El-Naggar, one of its founders, the party now depends on subscriptions from members for its financing. According to its manifesto, the party aims to maintain the gains of the revolution, encourage political participation, reform the security apparatus and foster economic development. It also wants to enhance the rights and duties of citizenship, stressing equality and team work. El-Naggar, previously linked to the campaign for president of former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed El-Baradei, has said that El-Baradei has no links to the Justice Party. The party is planning on fielding candidates for nearly a third of the seats in the parliamentary elections. According to party leaders, its electoral lists, numbering 21 and bearing the names of 150 candidates, do not include the names of former NDP parliamentary candidates. The party does not seek to gain a large representation in the new parliament, though leading candidates include El-Naggar, running for an individual seat in the Nasr City constituency, and political analyst Amr El-Shobaki, also running for an individual seat in the Dokki and Agouza constituency in Cairo. THE EGYPT CIVILISATION PARTY: Still being registered, the Egypt Civilisation Party is a centrist party. Member Hatem Azzam says that the party's founders did not play a political role during the rule of ousted president Hosni Mubarak because there was no genuine political life in Egypt before the January Revolution. The party's manifesto stresses a rapprochement between right-wing and left-wing positions, adopting the idea of the market economy from the right, in order to attract investment into Egypt, and the principles of social justice from the left. The party underlines the need to respect all religions. According to Azzam, the party aims to unify different political forces under one roof, with the common aim of rebuilding Egypt. The party calls for an independent judiciary and a new constitution that would guarantee greater freedoms, as well as justice, equality and democracy. It wants reform of the state sector of the economy, linking wages to productivity. Reforming industry, education and healthcare are also party aims, as are reforms to local government. The party will participate in the parliamentary elections as part of the Democratic Coalition for Egypt, though it seems to have few candidates. According to Azzam, the party has been "abiding by strict criteria, in order to present the best possible candidates to the electorate."
