CAIRO: Egypt's liberal political parties announced on Monday that they plan to contest all parliamentary seats in the upcoming election scheduled for November. The move comes less than two weeks since they formed a coalition to combat the Islamic groups earlier coalition ahead of the vote. The Democratic Coalition will “compete for 100 percent of the parliament chairs in the upcoming elections,” reported President of the Electoral Coordination Committee of the Democratic Coalition Waheed Abdel Magid. “The Coalition seeks to form a government of national salvation to lead the country out of transition,” he added. “The Committee decided that each party of the coalition may put forward candidates of their choosing,” Majid said after the completion of the first meeting of the committee. The committee reportedly decided on acceptable standards for electoral candidates including “patriotic reputation, good behavior and the absence of affiliation with the now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP),” reported Magid. Magid reported that the committee will divide candidates into three categories: first, former members of parliament; second, unsuccessful parliamentary candidates; and third, those who have not run for a seat in parliament. “The coalition meeting didn't discuss the expected percentage of representatives per party as the coalition is more interested in electoral triumph than it is in one party's triumph,” he added. BM
