CAIRO: Al-Azhar's Grand Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb joined the long queues in Heliopolis to cast his vote in the first parliamentary elections since the January 25 uprising. Voters standing outside the Masr El-Gedida School commended the leader of highest seat of Sunni lslam for not taking up people's offers to jump the queue. “He is extremely humble, it is great to see someone with authority refusing special treatment and wanting to be with the people,” said Mohamed El Khodary, who was standing in line, adding “this is the spirit after the revolution.” Al-Tayyeb had last week intervened to end the clashes between police and protesters off Tahrir Square, which left more than 40 dead and thousands injured. Al-Azhar "calls on the police leadership to immediately issue orders not to point their weapons at demonstrators … no matter what the reasons," Al-Tayyeb said last Wednesday. It calls "on the armed forces to throw all their weight behind preventing confrontations," he said. "Al-Azhar also calls on our children in Tahrir Square and all the squares of Egypt to maintain the peaceful nature of their revolution, despite the sacrifices and difficulties they face and to protect all private and public property." In the unusually strong statement from Al-Azhar, El-Tayyeb said that any dialogue "stained with blood is doomed and its fruit will be bitter." Dar Al Ifta, the official authority for issuing fatwas (religious opinions), released a statement Monday morning saying that “buying votes is sacrilegious and [those involved in it] are sinning.” “A candidate cannot use [his or her] money to influence the voter. Islam emphasizes freedom of will and is against corruption and bribery,” it added. Voters standing in line had concerns regarding the enforcement of a fine on those who did not vote. “My mother is an old woman and is not able to travel to her village [where she is registered] in order to vote and we can't afford LE 500,” said Heba Abdel Monsef, a hairdresser. Cairo's second electoral lists constituency, which includes the smaller individual candidate constituencies of Nasr City, Heliopolis and Ain Shams, has been allocated eight seats. It contains constituencies that have long been a stronghold for the disbanded National Democratic Party, with intense competition from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. In 2005, businessman and member of the NDP Policies Committee Mostafa El Sallab won the professionals seat. He joined the People's Assembly in the middle of the 2000 round, after professional Fawzy El Sayed left the PA. When El Sallab fell ill and passed away before the 2010 elections, the NDP nominated then Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy, who won. In both the 2005 and 2010, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Manal Abouel Hassan, ran as an independent. She lost and the elections were marred by accusations of rigging. El-Sayed is running again for the Nasr City professionals seat this year. For the workers seat, Thoraya Labana was the NDP's long-standing candidate for the constituency. The last election she won was in 2005 before she passed away. In the 2010 elections, the NDP nominated Tawfik Abdel Salam who won the seat.
