CAIRO: The political fall-out of the first round of the Egyptian parliamentary elections continues, with reports in the Egyptian press that the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, is hoping to form a government based on its new parliamentary majority. Under Egypt's constitution, as amended following a referendum last spring, appointing a government is the prerogative of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The FJP has taken a strong lead in the first phase of the Egyptian parliamentary elections, with the Salafi Nour party expected to come in second place. If they maintain their strong performance in the second and third phases of the election, the two parties are expected to hold a majority of parliamentary seats between them. The FJP has today denied that it is planning to form an alliance with Nour. It said that its only electoral coalition was with the other parties in the Democratic Alliance electoral bloc, of which it is by far the largest member. Saad al-Katatny, general secretary of the party, said that the party's entire focus at the moment was on the electoral process and not on potential parliamentary alliances. A subsequent FJP statement affirmed that any discussion of “the forthcoming government” was premature. Al-Masry Al-Youm had reported this morning, quoting the FJP's legal adviser Ahmad Abu Baraka, that the party was seeking to form a parliamentary bloc with “many forces, including the Wafd, to broaden the Democratic Alliance.” Meanwhile, the parties of the liberal and centre-left Egyptian Bloc electoral alliance welcomed the results of the first round, while criticizing shortcomings in the process and calling on SCAF and the Supreme Electoral Committee to ensure they were not repeated in the second and third phases. The Bloc also said that it had presented documented complaints about violations of the electoral law in a number of districts, including bribery of voters, campaigning inside polling stations, and the use of religious slogans. It called for the contests in those districts to be annulled and re-run. The Bloc said that the lack of coordination among the ‘civil forces' had weakened their position in the first phase, and it hoped that greater collaboration would lead to better results in the second and third phases of the vote, which will cover the 18 governorates which did not vote on Monday and Tuesday. Hani Sirry of the Free Egyptians Party, the largest party in the Egyptian Bloc, said that the electoral violations meant that the party's results from the first phase would not represent the true level of its support, but the Bloc was nevertheless pleased to be on course to gain 20 percent of the seats in the new parliament. Ihab Al-Kharrat, of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the other major party in the alliance, welcomed the poor performance of candidates linked to the former ruling National Democratic Party, saying that the Egyptian people had of their own accord banned ex-NDP members from politics in the absence of the long-awaited law to that effect. Meanwhile, Gehan Shaaban, media coordinator of the left-wing Popular Socialist Alliance, the leading party in The Revolution Continues electoral alliance, told Bikyamasr.com that the party was still waiting for the definitive results, but expected that the alliance would gain seats in Cairo, Alexandria and Fayoum. She said that the results reflected the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood had been established on the ground for seventy years, while the parties of The Revolution Continues were only newly formed. Shaaban said that the results of the first phase suggested that the constitution to be drafted by the new parliament would have an ‘Islamic color', whereas it should be inclusive and represent all elements of Egyptian society. Shaaban said that the election results, and the indications that the Freedom and Justice Party were hoping to form a government based on the parliamentary majority, would lead to an intensified political struggle between the parliamentary majority and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The constitutional amendments which provide that the government is appointed by SCAF would have to be followed pending the approval of a new constitution. Shaaban said that there was a third political force, “the street, broadly speaking, not just Midan Tahrir,” which she hoped would also play a part in the political struggle. BM
