The opposition looks increasingly fragmented ahead of next week's parliamentary election, reports Gamal Essam El-Din According to the Higher Election Commission (HEC) the total number of candidates in next Sunday's election fell from a high of 5,725 on 7 November to 5,181 on 15 November and 5,120 on 21 November. Out of the latest total, the HEC says, 1,200 are party- based candidates. The NDP is fielding 839 candidates including 69 women. The liberal-oriented Wafd is putting up 205 candidates, while the two main leftist parties -- the Tagammu and the Nasserist -- are fielding 78 and 43 respectively. Other candidates are standing from the smaller political parties, which means that non-NDP political parties participating in the coming election will be represented by 400 candidates -- the same number that stood in 2005 -- including around 70 women standing in female only districts. The Wafd Party surprised all by announcing on Tuesday a shadow government in the same way it is formed in the West, especially England. The Wafd Party leaders said that it decided to form this government to show that it is capable of selecting highly- qualified officials for cabinet portfolios. Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab had earlier argued that a rise in the number of opposition party candidates would help prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from winning anywhere near the 88 seats it secured in the 2005 election. "The 2005 election was an exceptional case for the Muslim Brotherhood. The low number of party-based candidates, including from the NDP, allowed it to win more seats more it deserved," said Shehab. "A large number of NDP and non-NDP party-based candidates in the coming election will make it difficult for the Brotherhood to win any seats." It is an analysis with which independent commentators beg to differ. Amr Hashem Rabie, parliamentary and political analyst with Al-Ahram, believes that "the non-NDP political parties entered the election in a weakened and divided state". Only last March, says Rabie, the Coalition of Egyptian Opposition Parties (CEOP) vowed to field more candidates than ever before to face the NDP and Brotherhood, and to coordinate with one another to ensure their candidates did not compete in the same districts. "What actually happened," says Rabie, "is that the Wafd, the Tagammu and the Nasserist failed to muster the number of candidates they expected, and have failed to agree on any kind of coordination." In next Sunday's election the three CEOP parties will together field just 326 candidates between them, six more than in 2005. The fact that the NDP is fighting every seat, says Rabie, suggests that all the pre-election speculation that the ruling party had cut a deal with the secular opposition and would allow the CEOP more seats at the expense of Brotherhood, was false. In 2005, the 320 CEOP candidates won just seven seats, one for the Tagammu and six for the Wafd. This year, argues Rabie, the 326 CEOP candidates could be looking at a similar outcome. "The NDP is fielding multiple candidates in 125 districts," points out Rabie. "Two NDP candidates will compete for the same seat in 41 districts, and more than two NDP candidates will be contesting 84 districts," making it difficult for any of the CEOP parties to win. The secular opposition's task will be further complicated by the 130 Muslim Brotherhood candidates who are standing as independents. The uphill battle facing the Wafd, Tagammu and Nasserists has, says Rabie, been made worse by the parties' lack of coordination. In Port Said Mohamed Sherdi, the Wafd's candidate and its media spokesman, faces a difficult battle against the Nasserist party's Tarek El-Bassel. In the north Cairo district of Al-Sahel former national football team player Taher Abu Zeid, the Wafd's candidate, is pitted against the Nasserist's deputy chairman Mohamed Abul-Ela, while in the Damietta district of Kafr Saad the Wafd's Assistant Secretary-General Sami Balah must battle it out with Nasserist candidate Mohamed Ayman Hendi. In some districts Wafdist candidates also face the Tagammu. In the Upper Egyptian Armant district Wafdist businessman Mohamed Sallam faces Al-Ahram journalist Diaa Rashwan, who is contesting the constituency for the Tagammu. Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the Wafd's Secretary- General, insists that "coordination among the three CEOP parties was never an end in itself". "The sheer number of CEOP members who wanted to run in the elections made it very difficult to secure any kind of coordination among the parties." Abdel-Nour himself faces an uphill battle not only against NDP candidate and veteran parliamentarian Mustafa El-Katatni, but also against another Wafdist candidate, Adel Abul-Shabab. In the north Cairo district of Shubra the Wafd's Rami Lakah, a Roman Catholic business tycoon, will face Karam Philips, a Copt representing the Ghad Party. The Tagammu's list of candidates also includes El-Badri Farghali, a firebrand leftist and former MP, in Port Said; Mohamed Abdel-Aziz Shaaban, a veteran parliamentarian, in the east Cairo district of Hadayek El-Qubba and Nagwa Abbas, who faces Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi in Nasr City. In Alexandria, Tagammu's Soheir Abdel-Zaher will compete against the Muslim Brotherhood's Boshra Al-Samni for a woman-only seat. In Tanta, the capital of Gharbiya, the Nasserists Mohamed Badr Hegazi faces Muslim Brother Sayed Askar for the town's workers' seat.
