In the absence of any ideological agreement, electoral coalitions that emerged in the months preceding the elections are held together by little beyond political opportunism, reports Doaa El-Bey The electoral coalitions that are to shortly battle it out at the ballot box are all committed to reducing poverty and unemployment and promoting development. They are all committed to strengthening security, establishing democracy, equality and social justice, and all underline the importance of the rule of law, multiparty rule and respect for human rights. Lastly, they all say they will work strenuously towards achieving the goals of the 25 January Revolution. Since any details on how they will manage these laudable aims are distinctly thin on the ground, the voter might be forgiven for asking: So what's to choose? The Democratic Alliance emerged, initially at least, as the broadest umbrella grouping. At one stage it included more than 40 parties, including the Wafd and Tagammu, the Salafist Nour, Nasserist groupings and, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). But since those heady days of June, and following incessant squabbling over the distribution of seats among alliance members, it is now down to 11 members, dominated by the FJP and including the Ghad, Karama and Arab Socialist Egypt parties. Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is its official language and Sharia the source of legislation, intones the alliance, in what is clearly not a ground-breaking manifesto. And quite how the desertion of 30 of its members will square with the alliance's avowed aim to provide space within its ranks for a sufficiently wide range of political so as to ensure that should it win the elections the new People's Assembly, mandated to select who will write a new constitution, reflects the political diversity of Egypt, remains far from clear. So too how this diversity is reflected in the FJP, the alliance's dominant partner, taking the lion's share of places on the candidate lists. The alliance is contesting all seats under the slogan "For the Good of Egypt" though the FJP has been campaigning under the Brotherhood's familiar -- and in the light of a campaign ban on religious slogans, illegal -- motto "Islam is the Solution". The Egyptian Bloc, an alliance of secular groups, was established in August. It initially comprised 16 liberal and leftist parties but now comprises just three, the Free Egyptian, Social Democratic and Tagammu parties. As happened with the alliance, early coalition members left amid wrangling over the allocation of seats. The bloc proclaims its goal is to complete the march of the Egyptian revolution. How it will do this is still a matter of conjecture. Unsurprisingly, the Democratic Alliance and the Egyptian Bloc have been criticised as politically incoherent, unable to formulate a manifesto to which their members can all sincerely subscribe. Parties that left the Egyptian Bloc formed another alliance, The Revolution Continues, which aims to give a platform for younger activists. Its members are for the most part recently formed parties, and include Egyptian Trend, the socialist Popular Coalition, and the Sufi Egyptian Freedom Party. It also incorporates the Coalition of Revolution Youth, the Youth Movement for Justice and Freedom and the Coalition of Independent Farmers. They are contesting the elections with 32 lists of candidates, and 26 members running as independents. Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, who is standing for election on one of The Revolution Continues' lists, acknowledges that the early days of the electoral coalitions were marred by infighting but argues that outstanding differences between the remaining members have now been settled. "Although the Revolution Continues contains socialist, liberal and Islamic elements, they are agreed on a single political programme that aims to achieve the demands and targets of the revolution. This is where we all meet," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Refugees from the Democratic Alliance formed their own Islamic Alliance in September. It includes Salafist parties like the Nour and Asala, the Fadila Party and Building and Development Party. Its avowed aim is to secure a strong Salafist say in the writing of the new constitution. Other attempts to form alliances failed to move beyond the stage of initial wrangling. And given the nature of the birth pains of those that did emerge, few analysts expect that, post-election, they will survive long.
