With two electoral battles looming in the coming months, the Egyptian government now finds itself fighting over a very different set of votes on the other side of the Atlantic. A congressional resolution currently working its way through the US Senate is harshly critical of the state of Egyptian democracy and sets out a list of demands all too familiar to local reform activists, including the repeal of the Emergency Law and the establishment of international monitoring for all national elections. The resolution's text calls the Emergency Law, “A significant obstacle to the consolidation of the rule of law in Egypt.” It also calls on the government to “take all steps necessary to ensure that forthcoming elections are free, fair, transparent, and credible, including granting independent international and domestic electoral observers unrestricted access to polling and counting stations and instructing security forces not to engage in violence.” The resolution is backed by two powerful US Senators, Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin and former presidential candidate John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. Its timing seems tied not only to the impending parliamentary and presidential elections, but also to the general state of political uncertainty due to President Mubarak's advanced age and speculation about his successor. Feingold, in a statement earlier this year, made an indirect reference to the fact that Mubarak's reign is coming to a close, one way or another. The coming phase, Feingold said, could be one of transition, possibly one of tumult, and that the United States should seize the opportunity to push for immediate domestic reform. Washington observers say the measures carry an impressive roster of supporters from both major US parties, and were being fast-tracked to approval late last month. “There's a fair amount of bipartisan support for this,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Congress has been interested in this issue for a while.” The Egyptian government has responded with a comprehensive (and expensive) lobbying effort. The Washington Post last month detailed what it called an aggressive Washington lobbying campaign by the longtime US ally. Billionaire Egyptian businessman Shafik Gabr even flew to Washington last month to add his voice and congressional contacts to the anti-resolution campaign. Efforts to reach Gabr for comment were unsuccessful. In the end, the Senate failed to bring the resolution up for a vote before going into recess last month so that senators and congressmen could focus on campaigning for elections in early November. The result was disappointing for proponents of the bill, but some warn that the measure is far from dead and the debate is expected to resume when the congress returns in mid-November. Andrew Albertson, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, said many congressmen were incensed when the government renewed the Emergency Law earlier this year. That congressional anger is matched by frustration with what many congressmen see as a soft touch by US President Barak Obama's administration regarding Egypt's domestic situation. "I think what you're seeing here in Washington is growing, bipartisan frustration with the Obama Administration's approach to this particular country. Whatever Obama officials are doing, it's not working,” Albertson told Al-Masry Al-Youm. “The renewal of Emergency Law in particular was seen as a real slap in the face. The Senate's resolution is just a reflection of that broader, growing frustration." Albertson added that the opinion among many congressmen is that the administration is less interested in democracy than it is in regional geopolitics. To be fair, Obama administration officials haven't exactly been silent on the topic. Earlier this month, Michael Posner, the Assistant US Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights, ruffled feathers during a visit to Cairo by openly calling for many of the same points--including international polling station monitors and an end to the emergency laws. Posner called for open and transparent elections and expressed hope that international monitors would be allowed to observe polling stations. He also called for changes in the elements of Egyptian law that “restrict the freedom of action of civil society organizations and freedom of the press, especially in the period leading up to parliamentary and presidential elections in Egypt.” However Posner mitigated his demands somewhat by emphasizing that change in Egypt should not be imposed on the society from the outside. This groundswell of Washington focus on Egypt's domestic problems has been matched from other places as well. A recent Washington Post editorial flatly stated, “If nothing changes, both [elections] will be rigged by the regime and the presidential transition will be decided by Mr. Mubarak and the Egyptian military and intelligence service -- possibly in favor of his son, Gamal.” Throughout the storm of political pressure, the Egyptian government has remained defiant. This week, the National Democratic Party stalwart Safwat al-Sherif declared that Egypt could run its own free and fair elections without any foreign interference. With the US congress in recess, the fate of the resolution remains unclear. But Cook and Albertson both maintained that congressional support for the measure remains high and it could pick up again as soon as congress reconvenes after the elections next month. One potentially crucial factor to watch: Feingold is facing a tough electoral challenger, and if he loses it would cost the Egypt bill its sponsor. But Cook, the Council on Foreign Relations scholar, warned that Cairo shouldn't necessarily congratulate itself on killing the bill. “It may not be a function of the Egyptian government's effective lobbying efforts as much as a matter of the vagaries of how the Senate works,” Cook said.
