The government will refer a bill to the People's Assembly [the parliament] to amend the law on elections so that two seats are allocated to women in every governorate (56 seats nationwide). President Mubarak assigned the government with preparing this amendment during his speech before the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)'s fifth annual convention. Although the announced goal of this amendment is to increase women's participation in political life, opposition parties' leaders split over it, as some welcomed the amendment while others said it would not be fruitful in light of the NDP control over the elections. In addition, a number of those parties' leaders said there are not enough qualified women for that number of seats. "Women participation in parliament is a must, but in light of the current election climate, parties would be unable to fill seats allocated to women. Allocating seats to political parties will be more effective than allocating them to women, as this system failed to achieve a real parliamentary representation for women," Wafd Party Secretary General Munir Fakhry Abdel Nour said. For his part, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Deputy General Guide Dr Mohamed Habib said that allocating seats to women consecrate racism inside the state. It will reduce women's role rather than giving them more chances, he said. "Experiences and history proved that the ruling regime is not serious regarding women representation, as evidenced by the fact that the NDP previous election rolls almost had no women. What the NDP is doing now is nothing but a speculation on the state and the opposition, as proven by the NDP fighting the MB when the latter nominated women in elections as was the case with Jihan Al-Halafawi in Alexandria in 2000 and Makarim Al-Diri in 2005. The NDP proposal came late and contradicted its previous stances, the Nasserite Party Secretary General Ahmed Hassan said. He referred to the meeting that was held at the beginning of 2005 in which parties' chairman and secretary general called for seats to be allocated to women, but the NDP rejected that proposal. Egyptian parties have female cadres able to run in the elections, but it is not necessary to fill all seats in all governorates because no party is able to do this, he added. For his part, the head of the Egypt Arab Socialist Party Wahid Al-Oksory said: "No Egyptian party is able to field candidates, either men or women, in all governorates. Therefore, it is difficult for parties to fill 56 seats for women. Although such proposal opens door for discrimination, we are with women's positive participation in the political action." Tagamo'h Party Secretary General Said Abdel Aal said that in light of security intervention, thuggery, wrong election rolls and restrictions on election campaigns, the elections would turn parties' female candidates into mere extras. Therefore, he affirmed the proposal would deprive women of their parliamentary right and political participation. This proposal will make it incumbent upon a female candidate to carry out her election campaign in half of the governorate, which will need financial capabilities that parties do not have, he said. The Secretary General of the Democratic Front Party Margaret Azer said the party has been preparing female cadres since its establishment. The proposal is a starting point to face women's weak political representation. Although it is difficult for parties to face such challenges in light of bad election conditions, failure in this test would only be borne by parties. "It would be our mistake if we failed to provide strong cadres able to prove themselves on the ground" she added. The party chairman, Osama Al-Ghazali Harbsaid, said the proposal is a natural start for changing the cultural stance towards women and encouraging them to prove their presence in the political life.
