The secretary-general of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) met with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday to present the names of candidates selected to run in 1 June elections for the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament. The nominees, who will compete for 88 council seats, are expected to be announced at a press conference today. According to NDP member Yomna el-Hamaqi, 567 candidates will be fielded by the party in 67 constituencies. "We have reviewed the list of candidates with President Mubarak, which was endorsed by the party's electoral colleges," said NDP Secretary-General Safwat el-Sherif. "We also tackled the issue of the party's electoral program." The nominations came on the last day for official candidate registration. Some critics saw the last-minute announcement as a delaying tactic intended to prevent unselected members from running independently; others have attributed the late announcement to an internal, pre-election crisis within the ruling party. The NDP nominations follow a 6 May announcement by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition movement that 14 MB members would be fielded in the elections. MB candidates will technically run as independents, however, as the group--despite its formidable grass-roots support--is not recognized according to the Egyptian constitution, which bans political parties based on religion. The leftist Tagammu Party, for its part, announced earlier that it would field 11 candidates in the race. All parties are required to submit relevant documents pertaining to their respective nominees to an electoral committee, which rules on the validity of proposed candidacies. Candidates must be at least 35 years old, literate, and must have served in the military or have been legally exempted from service. Twenty-eight women currently sit on the council, representing 6 percent of total seats. The president has reportedly given instructions that elections be held with "total transparency," adding that the NDP "must serve as an example" of democracy and electoral integrity. NDP members currently hold the vast majority of council seats, having won 84 out of 88 designated seats in the last election in 2007. The remaining four seats are held by three independents and one Tagammu Party member. The Shura Council is a consultative body, which experts say has little real influence on lawmaking. It is made up of 264 members, with 88 voted in by the public while the remaining 174 are directly appointed by the president. The lower house of parliament, the People's Assembly, plays a more important role in drafting legislation, and currently includes members from six parties as well as independents. Of the assembly's 454 seats, 311 are held by the NDP.
