CAIRO - The debate about the elections for the Egyptian People's Assembly (Lower House of the Egyptian Parliament), due on November 28, is getting hotter and hotter as the promised perhaps we should say fateful date grows closer. The Mail this week takes a good look at the whole election process, through the eyes of candidates from different parties and movements, civil society activists and the voters themselves. In confusion and uncertainty The Government vehemently opposes the presence of foreign monitors during the upcoming parliamentary elections. It repeats over and again that their presence would infringe on Egypt's sovereignty and national dignity. This message has been voiced by numerous officials from the Government and the ruling National Democratic Party, including the Secretary General of the Party Safwat el-Sherif who considers foreign monitoring of the vote to be tantamount to an intervention in Egypt's internal affairs. "Politics in Egypt is a national activity, which cannot be directed from outside," el-Sherif said during a recent meeting of his party's Politbureau. This and other inimical attitudes to foreign monitoring leave Maged Adeeb, an activist heavily involved in elections, perplexed. As far as he is concerned, Government and ruling party don't only oppose the presence of foreign monitors, but also Egyptian ones. Adeeb, who is part of the Independent Committee for Election Supervision, has presented an application to the Higher Election Commission to supervise the elections. “So far we have received no reply from the Committee, which augurs badly for the whole electoral process,” Adeeb said. He does, however, not seem to be alone in this state of uncertainty. As the election date comes closer, the nation's civil society organisations are thrown into deep fear and uncertainty over the fairness of the elections. While training their members and ordinary Egyptians in election supervision, officials of these organisations are not sure whether those trained will ever be able to step into a polling station. Adeeb and his colleagues submitted a similar application to supervise the previous elections of the Upper House of Parliament (Shura Council) a few months ago. Not only were they totally ignored, but they were not allowed into polling stations nationwide. “Civil society has the right to monitor the elections,” Adeeb said. “This supervision will guarantee fairness and give the electorate the chance to vote for the best candidates,” he added. But such is the general mood weeks before the election: full of complaints and criticism of the Government. A recent report cites major violations in the period prior to the elections as far as campaigning and equal opportunity among the candidates are concerned. The report, issued by a coalition of civil society organisations, states that the orders of the Higher Election Committee on elections propaganda were not published in the newspapers, and as a result most candidates and parties were kept in the dark. “Governors have also violated the rules of the Committee by visiting certain candidates, most of whom belong to the National Democratic Party, in a biased initial move before the elections,” the report says. It adds that the ruling party had even run ads on most of the nation's TV channels, encouraging the electorate to vote for its candidates in blatant violation of regulations on election propaganda spending. The Higher Election Commission set LE200,000 (US$35,149) as the ceiling for election spending. But the report says that the ruling party has already gone beyond this limit. The silence of the Government on these violations gives Adeeb and like-minded activists an inkling of what might happen in the days to come. “The Government's evil intentions are clear even before the start of the elections,” he said. “Our Government plans to rig the vote in total disregard of what we say here,” he added. Despite this, Adeeb keeps training people in the hope that they would be allowed to prevent vote rigging. So far he has managed to train 3,600 monitors who are supposed to watch polling stations around the nation. “There will be 50 monitors in each constituency,” he said. “If the Government allows their presence, rigging can be something of the past. But the question is: Does the Government want rigging really to disappear?” he asked.
Candidates: hopes and fears Brightly coloured election banners fluttered in the breeze on a street in the heart of the Egyptian capital. Pedestrians kept passing, but seemed to form no impression of the heated rivalry that had just started to make itself noticed across the nation among parliamentary hopefuls; a rivalry where election banners, candidate photos and slogans were basic weapons. In an office in close proximity to the Giza Pyramids, Abdel-Nasser Abu-Mera, whose name featurs highly on many banners, kept talking to some guests about the easy life the ruling National Democratic Party would bring to Egyptians if it wins a majority of seats in the next Parliament. Abu-Mera talked in such a confident manner that a student of Egyptian history of the past 30 years might get perplexed and even encouraged to doubt all the books and newspaper reports he/she has read about the failure of the party to bring about the required economic welfare during a rule that has already lasted for more than a quarter of a century. “Everybody is watching,” Abu-Mera said. “But I assure you that the National Democratic Party will achieve great success in the elections. Other competitors will not fare very well,” he told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. Everybody is enthusiastic about the elections. In the corridors of the nation's political parties and even on the streets, nobody talks about anything but the polls and the political power that is expected to manipulate the next Parliament. The ruling National Democratic Party has already held internal elections to choose the candidates it will field in the elections. Other parties, including Al-Wafd, have held internal elections too. For many, this is pre-election work as usual. What is unusual, however, is the importance of the elections themselves for Egypt's future and this is what motivates everybody; the political parties, candidates, party members and supporters. “The next Parliament will have a major say in who will rule Egypt,” said Mohamed Kesb, a candidate of the leftist Unionist Progressive Party (known in Arabic as Tagammu) from the coastal Governorate of Damietta. “The other thing is that this country's political powers feel that it is high time that the monopoly of the National Democratic Party came to an end.” Kesb, whose party was founded by one of the army officers who toppled the monarchy in Egypt in 1952, has also prepared the required banners and speeches for the elections. He says there will be intense competition among the candidates this time, adding that since the Government is not intimidated by the US administration as during the previous parliamentary elections in 2005, it will “rig” the vote any way it wants so that it can stay in power for ever. “This is the reality,” Kesb said. “The National Democratic Party with its customary arrogance wants to give people the impression that change is impossible and that it is the only viable political option in this country, but I encourage Egyptians to stay united against the political greed of this party.” An equally burning election zeal is shown by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is theoretically banned, but practically tolerated by the Government. This tolerance, however, seems to be fading away, as the Government continues to oppose religious groups with political ambitions, while the pace of sectarian tension seems to grow in a country where almost 10 per cent of the 80 million population are not Muslims. Nevertheless, the Brotherhood has adopted the slogan “Islam is the Solution” and is lobbying strongly for a place in the next Parliament. “There is a political vacuum in Egypt,” said Sobhi Saleh Moussa, a Brotherhood candidate. “This vacuum was created over decades of manipulation by the National Democratic Party, using any means imaginable to stifle opposition,” he added. The Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents, managed to win a fifth of the seats in the last elections. This time, however, they do not expect to have an easy ride in the polls. During its general congress last year, the National Democratic Party sought to assure its members that a major election win by the Muslim Brotherhood would be unlikely in the future. “The Government is playing a very silly game,” Moussa said. “It wants the next Parliament to be weak because it will have to offer the necessary legitimacy to a planned scenario of political succession,” he added.
Electorate have their say This is an election season for most Egyptians, but for Mamdouh Saber, a 55-year-old tailor from Cairo, all days are the same. As he stitched pieces of cloth together to make a beautiful pair of brown trousers, Saber, who last visited a polling station more than ten years ago, tried to make sense of Egypt's current election hype. “You know what?” Saber said. “I'm totally convinced that nothing good will come out of all the millions of pounds spent on election propaganda. That's why I'm not enthusiastic about this election process,” he told the Mail in an interview. This hapless tailor is day and night in his shop, waiting for neighbours and customers to bring pieces of cloth they want him to turn into trousers, shirts, jackets or suits. But the tailoring business is passing through its toughest phase yet, due to the advanced machines in garment factories both here and in China spewing out millions of beautifully crafted clothes. This lack of work gives Saber free time in abundance and he talks to everybody about everything, including the coming elections. “Most of the people I talked to are full of frustration as far as the potential for change is concerned,” Saber said. “They know for sure that the election will not change their bitter realities.” Perhaps this is why a state of overwhelming and deep antipathy seems to be sweeping across every corner of this country about the electoral process. Apart from political party members, and they are few, and politically affiliated individuals, the majority of people are busy thinking of other things, as a wave of food price hikes affects all. On the surface Egypt seems to be getting ready for yet another round of parliamentary elections, but underneath there is frustration in every home, brought on by years of political stagnation and reflected in the unwillingness of millions to take part in an election process that will change nothing. “Participation is very important,” said Omayma Gad, a civil servant. “People keep talking about the need for change every now and then, but this change will not happen if they stay at home. They must go to the polling stations and get their candidates of choice into Parliament,” Gad, 45, added. For people like Saber, this is more theoretically than practically correct. He sat in this shop five years ago and watched news of election rigging and violence on TV. Saber seems to have lost all faith in the elections. When parliamentary hopefuls visit him in the shop, he feels obliged to assure them that he would vote for them. But in reality he does not plan to go to the polling station. “I've got nothing to offer these people than lip service,” Saber said. “Elections are about personal interests, not the interests of the electorate. Therefore let the hopefuls fight their fight.”
