CAIRO: Members of the Democratic Front Party won t take part in the upcoming Shoura Council elections, due next month. Member of Parliament and party member Mohamed Anwar El Sadat explained that time limitations are the reason behind the decision. The party got the approval of the Political Parties Committee of the Shoura Council last week. During the first organizational meeting for the members following the approval, members stressed the importance of building leadership and the ideology of the party before reaching out to the common man. They said the challenge would be reaching out to the silent majority. By doing so, members hope they won t be repeating the mistakes of other political parties. Osama El Ghazali Harb, representing the party founders, said the members recognized the fact that the political scene is dominated by two blocs: the ruling National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. But . Egypt is bigger than this, and the majority is still unrepresented. Only 20 percent voted in the last parliamentary elections. We are betting on the targeted 80 percent, he added. The party is based on liberal ideologies. During the press conference following the approval, Yehia El Gamal, representing party founders, announced that the Democratic Front is a civil party that rejects mixing religions with politics. We call for a civil state that doesn t discriminate between citizens. We consider religion a lofty value and element in the formation of human societies but shouldn t interfere with politics, explained El Gamal. He stressed that the Democratic Front is against all parties with a religious or military base. The main objective is to turn the Egyptian political system into a system with the democratic foundations recognized by the world, said Harb. The party, Harb explained, will work through team spirit and effort, something that the political scene lacks. The list of party founders includes a number of the prominent figures on the local political scene, many of which were involved with the NDP at one point or another. Heading the list is Harb, who resigned from the Policies Committee of the ruling party last year. Harb is an appointed member of the Shoura Council and editor in chief of the state-run International Politics Magazine. Some concerns about the members relation with the ruling party were voiced. Getting the green light from the Shoura Council on forming the party in less than a year, a record time in comparison to other political hopefuls, has left some analysts wondering. But El Gamal, a former minister, said the ideology the party presented couldn t be rejected by any sane person. A party with members like Mohamed Ghoniem, Hazem El Biblawy and Mohamed Okasha could never strike a deal with the ruling party, he added. The system must have realized the danger of the prevalent political void and its repercussions and decided that there must be serious parties on the scene, explained El Gamal.
