At a seminar organized by the Egyptian Press Syndicate's freedoms committee on Wednesday, political figures called on Egypt's various political movements to stand up against anticipated vote fraud in upcoming presidential elections slated for 2011. Attendees described Egypt's recently concluded People's Assembly elections as “the worst in Egypt's history." Political science professor Hassan Nafaa described the ruling regime as one "that will remain in power to its last breath." He added: “No party in any country in the world could possibly maintain such a majority in parliament except through the use of electoral fraud." Naffa went on to explain that political reform “cannot come from within the regime,” and that the opposition "must unite its efforts and agree upon a presidential candidate so as to foil the inheritance-of-power plan,” in reference to an anticipated presidential bid by Gamal Mubarak, the 47-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak. According to Saad al-Husseini, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement, who also attended the committee meeting, Egypt's future “depends on the degree of cooperation between the various political movements and on the unification of their demands, as well as an insistence on the application of the law and on judicial independence.” General coordinator of the pro-democracy Kefaya movement Abdel Halim Kandil, for his part, described Egypt's recent parliamentary polls as a “parody,” going on to stress that “corruption will continue to exist as long as Egypt's political forces fail to unite.” Translated from the Arabic Edition.
