Egypt's parliamentary elections have become a bone of contention between the White House and Congress, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky While the US administration has been trying to avoid any tension in the past few months with Egypt on the coming parliamentary election, a group of high-profile bipartisan senators in the US congress are pushing hard for the White House to practise serious pressures on Cairo to allow international monitors to observe the election process. The Congress' pressures influenced the Department of State last week to issue a statement criticising Egypt for the cancellation of a human rights conference. The statement that came from a senior official in the State Department, urged the Egyptian regime to reconsider its decision to cancel the human rights event. "We are concerned about the recent cancellation of a conference on the freedom of association. We urge that this conference, with international and local civil society participation, be rescheduled at the earliest possible opportunity," said Philip Crowley, assistant secretary at the Bureau of Public Affairs. According to the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House, which was to take part, the conference, organised by the One World Foundation, an Egyptian NGO, and scheduled for the last week of September, was expected to discuss limits on freedom of association in Egypt and the Arab world. Crowley added that the US is concerned "by reports that security service members beat and detain citizens participating in public demonstrations". It is the first time that President Barack Obama's administration has used such language to criticise the Egyptian regime, say sources in Congress . The statement appears to be an attempt by the White House to curtail attempts by Congress to get involved in domestic Egyptian issues at a time when the primary regional focus of the administration is the peace process. The Egyptian government responded via a statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hossam Zaki. He rejected the US comments, saying they reflected "a lack of knowledge of the facts, and ignore the reality of the Egyptian position, which encourages civil society." A Congressional source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House tends to use softer language in an attempt to reassure Cairo that the administration has no desire to pick a fight with the Egyptian regime. On 7 September Crowley had issued a far less strongly worded statement, saying that Washington "wanted to see free, fair, and impartial elections in Egypt" but adding that the presidential and parliamentary elections were "a decision for the Egyptian people". The State Department's latest statement came after a heated debate in Congress on a resolution on Egypt introduced by Senator John McCain, Obama's Republican opponent in the residential election, and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold. It called for international monitors to observe November's parliamentary election and for the release of "everyone detained under Egyptian emergency law". The non-binding resolution attracted both Democratic and Republican senators and is expected to be approved by the Foreign Relations Committee by the end of October. It will then be passed to the Senate. Pressure on Obama's administration to adopt a firmer stance on democracy and human rights in Egypt is being led by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and advocacy groups like Freedom House. Last week, former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, chair of the NDI, and Senator McCain, chair of the IRI, signed a joint letter to President Hosni Mubarak asking the Egyptian government to accept international election monitors. The daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported that the Egyptian government would not respond to the letter on the grounds that it is the Higher Electoral Committee that must decide whether it needs international observers or not. Mokbel Shaker, Chairman of the state-affiliated National Council on Human Rights, has argued in press interviews that Egypt has the local capacity to hold an election without the need for international monitors. "International monitoring is only needed in countries that recently gained their independence. Egypt has well established constitutional institutions and its regime knows the people will not accept foreign monitoring," argued Shaker.
