Although parliament gave the thumbs up for legislative changes promoting more transparent presidential polls, the election commission's decisions remain final. Gamal Essam El-Din reports on the People's Assembly and the Shura Council's election of its first Islamist chairman Ahmed Fahmi, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was elected unopposed as chairman of the upper consultative house of Shura Council on Tuesday. Two deputies, Tarek El-Sehri of the Salafist Nour Party and Mustafa Hamoudi of the liberal Wafd Party, were also elected. Fahmi's election came in an inaugural procedural session during which 180 newly elected members were also due to be sworn in. On Wednesday the council elected the heads of 12 committees. The inaugural procedural meeting of the Shura Council followed a two-stage election which ended on 22 February with Islamists winning more than 80 per cent of the seats on a disappointingly low voter turnout. The conservative FJP won 105 -- or 58.3 per cent -- of the 180 seats up for grabs, while the ultra conservative Salafist Nour Party clinched 45. The liberal-oriented Wafd Party and the Egyptian Bloc trailed third and fourth, with 14 seats and eight seats. The Horreya and the Democratic Peace parties -- both offshoots of the now defunct National Democratic Party, a major pillar of the Mubarak regime -- got four seats in total (two per cent) with the remaining four seats going to independents. Despite the strength of Islamist representation, no single party has a majority since in addition to the 180 elected members the Shura Council includes 90 appointees. Tuesday's session was held without non-elected members who are expected to be appointed only once a president is in place. The FJP had widely trailed the likelihood of one of its leading members being nominated to chair the Shura Council. In a meeting on 26 April the FJP steering office opted for Ahmed Fahmi, who hails from the Delta governorate of Sharqiya, as its candidate. Supported by a majority of the Islamists, he was duly elected. Ali Fath Al-Bab was selected as FJP Shura Council spokesman. A worker at the Iron and Steel Company in South Cairo's Helwan district, Fath Al-Bab was elected to the People's Assembly in 1995. Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said in an official letter read out in the opening session that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has fulfilled its promise by handing over legislative authorities to the parliament after completion of the elections of the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. He also vowed that the upcoming presidential elections would be exemplary and transparent. He added that, "We encountered tough tests and great challenges, and the state was solely relying on the army; it is Egypt's great army that protected the revolution and adopted all its demands." The contrast with the last Shura elections in June 2010, when in a flagrantly rigged poll the NDP won 95 per cent of seats, could not be more marked. The results of the Shura elections see a tightening of the Islamists' hold over parliamentary and political life and provide further evidence of the marginalisation of liberal forces. The Islamists already occupy two thirds of seats in the People's Assembly, Egypt's much more powerful lower house. Their dominance of the Shura Council means they will have the upper hand in selecting the 100-member constituent assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution. The 678 elected members of the People's Assembly and Shura Council (498+180), of whom 70 per cent are now Islamist representatives, are due to meet on 3 March to appoint members of the committee mandated to draft the constitution. FJP chairman Mohamed Mursi said his party had approached the Shura election seriously. ñAlthough other parties were not so keen to contest the Shura polls, we made sure we fielded candidates in every district," Mursi told FJP's daily newspaper. ñThe Shura Council was important to us because some of its members will form part of the panel entrusted with appointing a 100-member constituent assembly." Many political forces abstained from fielding candidates. Liberal forces and youth groups such as the 6 April Movement argue that the low voter turnout -- Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, chairman of the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC), estimates it at less than 13 per cent -- sends a clear message that the council has no credibility and should be abolished. On 26 February Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohamed Attia insisted that there was no possibility of the council being annulled. ñThe Shura Council is worthy of gaining full supervisory and legislative powers on an equal footing with the People's Assembly," said Attia, though he provided no details how this would be achieved. ñThe existence of a functioning bicameral system in Egypt ensures a healthy political and democratic life." Attia criticised ña hostile campaign against Shura Council in the media". ñThe political benefits of an effective Shura Council will far outweigh its financial costs," he argued, adding, somewhat cryptically, ñthat this is not to mention its high-quality and prestigious contribution to scientific life." Attia attributed the low turnout to ñcitizens' exhaustion after three months of polls for the People's Assembly." The Shura Council was created by Anwar El-Sadat in 1980 and charged with supervising the media and licensing political parties. The chair of the Shura Council served as de-facto head of the Higher Press Council and the Political Parties Committee. The council was also entrusted with preparing studies on pressing political and socio-economic issues. In 2007, it began debating new legislation and the annual budget though the final say on both of these was left to the People's Assembly. Safwat El-Sherif, appointed chair of the Shura Council in 2004, is currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of manslaughter and illegal profiteering.
