CAIRO: Al-Ghad opposition party has officially announced its intentions to boycott the November People's Assembly elections, party head Ayman Nour told Daily News Egypt Wednesday. “The party took this decision following an internal referendum on Tuesday involving members of the executive board … who unanimously agreed on the boycott,” Nour said. “The regime and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) have distorted political life in Egypt … turning it into a methodological farce … which makes it difficult for opposition groups to join the parliamentary race,” he added. However, any party member, said Nour, has the right to run as an independent. But in this case they will not be supported by the party. On Aug. 30, the National Association for Change (NAC) had called on Egyptian citizens and all opposition groups and parties to boycott the elections. “What we boycotted is not an election. Rather, it is a process through which the regime attempts to gain [a false] legitimacy [through forging the results],” said a NAC statement. Yet NDP members beg to differ. “How can the so-called opposition groups and parties claim that election results will be forged before the polls even kick off? No mature person would think this way,” MP Abdel-Ahad Gamal Eddin told Daily News Egypt. “Some of these parties don't even qualify to be political parties. I wish there would be influential opposition parties [to create a balance and compete with] the ruling party,” Gamal Eddin, also the NDP's majority leader at the PA, said. Even though the Supreme Electoral Commission recently warned against the use of promotional campaign material by candidates' supporters before the allowed date, some posters of candidates have already appeared on the walls of several neighborhoods in Cairo. Meanwhile, the NDP is expected to meet Wednesday to review the party's list of candidates nationwide. No further details on the meeting results were available at press time.
