Parliamentary election battle lines are being drawn, reports Gamal Essam El-Din, and a record number of candidates will enter the fray By Sunday's deadline a record number of candidates had registered for parliamentary elections. Among the 5,725 people hoping to be elected to the People's Assembly there are 397 women and up to 80 Copts. The overall number of candidates is up from 4,243 in 2005 and 4,250 in the 2000 elections. They will compete for 508 parliamentary seats -- in addition to 10 who will be appointed by the president -- 64 of them reserved for women. An estimated 1,223 candidates represent 14 political parties, with the remaining 4,105 running as independents. The latter figure includes members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) who decided to run independently after the party refused to nominate them as well as around 140 Muslim Brotherhood candidates. As one political analyst noted, independent candidates "are independents just in name". As in previous elections, he added, a major part of the battle will be NDP versus NDP. The NDP is fielding 780 official candidates rather than the 508 it initially announced. They will compete for the 508 seats up for grabs. At least 50 of the party's candidates are high- profile businessmen and old guard politicians who are virtually guaranteed to win seats. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif announced on Sunday that the party would stand in every constituency, with several NDP candidates sometimes contesting the same seat. Ahmed Ezz, NDP secretary for organisational affairs, insists "the party was forced to field several candidates for the same seat after it found out that they enjoy the same levels of popularity". "We decided to field more than one NDP candidate in certain districts in which strong opposition rivals were nominated and we decided to leave the choice to the voters." On Wednesday, President Hosni Mubarak addressed a meeting of 500 NDP officials from the party's Higher Council, the Policies Committee led by Gamal Mubarak, and chairmen of the party's provincial offices in all 29 governorates. The address reviewed the NDP's achievements in the last five years and laid the foundations for Mubarak's presidential election programme next year. Gamal Mubarak, the 47-year-old son of President Mubarak, also reviewed the NDP's election programme. The NDP's list of candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary election remained a closely guarded secret until it was finally released on Sunday. It includes nine cabinet ministers, including three members of the outgoing parliament. The veterans are Youssef Boutros Ghali, minister of finance, who is running in the north Cairo district of Shubra; Sayed Mashaal, minister of military production, in Helwan, and Ali Meselhi, minister of social solidarity, in the Sharqiya district of Abu Kibir. Cabinet ministers who were not part of the outgoing parliament but who are now standing are Amin Abaza, minister of agriculture, in Al-Tilien (Sharqiya); Nasreddin Allam, minister of irrigation, in Juhayna (Sohag); Moufid Shehab, minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs, in Moharrem Bey (Alexandria); Mohamed Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, minister of local development, in Al-Raml (Alexandria); Fayza Abul-Naga, minister of state for international cooperation, in Port Said and Sameh Fahmi, minister of petroleum, in Nasr City (Cairo). The list also includes a number of old guard septuagenarian politicians. Fathi Sorour, speaker of the People's Assembly since 1990, will contest the south Cairo district of Al-Sayeda Zeinab; Zakaria Azmi, chief of presidential staff and NDP assistant secretary-general, is standing in the east Cairo district of Al-Zeitoun and Kamal El-Shazli, a former cabinet minister and a member of the NDP's Politburo, hopes to represent Menoufiya's Al-Bagour district. An additional three former cabinet ministers are also standing: former economy minister and Chairman of parliament's Economic Committee Mustafa El-Said in Darb Negm (Sharqiya); Mahmoud Abu Zeid, former irrigation minister, in Nahtai (Gharbiya); Amal Othman, former social affairs minister and the head of the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee in Giza's district of Doqqi. Ahmed Guweili, the former minister of trade, had been seeking to run in Beheira governorate but was excluded from the list. High-profile businessmen candidates close to Gamal Mubarak include: Ahmed Ezz, NDP secretary for organisational affairs and chairman of parliament's Budget Committee; Mohamed Abul-Enein, chairman of parliament's Industry Committee; Tarek Talaat Mustafa, chairman of parliament's Housing Committee and brother of Hisham Talaat Mustafa who is currently facing trial for inciting a former police officer to kill Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim; Mansour Amer, a former MP and owner of Amer Group for Tourist Development; construction magnate Mohamed El-Morshidi and textile tycoon Talaat El-Qawwas. Having donated millions of pounds to the party's coffers their selection was guaranteed. Members who registered as possible candidates were excluded from the party's list for several reasons, says El-Sherif, including failure to command public support and implication in corrupt practices. Observers, however, note that the party's screening process failed to exclude controversial figures such as North Sinai MP Nashaat El-Qassas, who recently urged security forces to open fire on protesters demonstrating for greater political and democratic rights, or Rashad Othman, the Alexandrian businessman who spent several years in prison after being found guilty of corruption charges under the rule of late president Anwar El-Sadat. According to El-Sherif "at least 30 per cent of NDP candidates are new young faces, including journalists, engineers and doctors". They include the son of the governor of Damietta, Fathi El-Baradei, a cousin of Mohamed El-Baradei, ex-chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is contesting the Kafr Al-Zayat district (Gharbiya); Abdel-Mohsen Salama, an Al-Ahram journalist and board member of the Press Syndicate, in Shubra; Madiha Khattab, sister of the Minister of State for Population and Family Mushira Khattab, in Cairo and Hani Abu Reeda, deputy chairman of the Egyptian Football Association and a board member of FIFA, standing in Port Fouad (Port Said). The NDP list contains very few Copts, the most prominent of whom are Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali and businessman Khaled El-Assiuti.
