CAIRO: The spread of Islamic powers is gradually increasing in Egypt. They intensified their moves with the next parliamentary elections approaching to keep their popularity in the areas which witnessed the spread of their principles during the former regime. The Salafis dominated Lower Egypt, while the Islamic group controlled Upper Egypt. The Muslims Brotherhood (MB) and the Wasat Party spread all over the country, but the MB is the most popular in Lower Egypt. Despite the attempts of the former regime to eradicate the roots of the Islamic movement, they returned to dominate Upper Egypt and other governorates around the country. The spread of Islamists means that there are two main possibilities. The first one being that the Islamists will dominate most of the governorates during the next parliamentary elections. The second possibility is that Islamists will dominate all the seats in parliament allocated for whole governorates, such as Alexandria for example. The spokesman of al-Nour Party, the Salafi's political entity, stressed that his party is capable of competing in the next elections. He said that al-Nour will gain seats in the next parliamentary elections if the elections are fair. The spokesman also said there is a need to go against the idea of buying the votes, which has spread during the former regime. He said that this needs to be done to ensure fair representation for all political powers in Egypt's parliament. Al-Wasat Party is trying to intensify its activities in all governorates in order to increase its popularity. They refused to talk about the areas which the party will focus on during the next elections. Mohamed al-Saman, the general director of the party, said his party does not aim to obtain a big share of the parliamentary seats. "We work to inform the people of the objectives and programs of the party in order to pave the way for serious competition for the upcoming elections," he added. Al-Saman said these new parties, which claim that they can compete in the next elections, do not realize the nature or details of the electoral process. In Upper Egypt, the Islamic group is very popular especially that it has been established in the area. Nageh Ibrahim, a member of the group's Shura Council, said the Building and Development Party (the political entity of the group) will gain a lot of votes during the next parliamentary elections in Upper Egypt, as it is very popular in the area. Ibrahim added that the way to parliament will not be easy for Islamists as there are non-Islamic parties that are credible amongst the Egyptians. This, he said, includes the al-Karama Party which will be a strong competitor for the Islamists during the elections. The Muslim Brotherhood's affiliated Freedom and Justice Party, which is expected to gain the majority of parliamentary seats, said that its popularity will lead it to gain parliamentary seats from all the governorates. Mohamed Abdel-Gawad, an official of the party said that despite the party's popularity all over the country, it will focus on governorates in Lower Egypt which granted them a lot of parliamentary seats in the 2005 elections. The political analyst, Amar Ali Hassan, ruled out that the Islamists will fully dominate the parliament. He said there will be strong competitors for Islamists in different governorates, and that there will be areas that will witness competition between the Islamists themselves. Hassan added that the Islamists dominated the elections of the syndicates during the Mubarak regime because they were keen to vote in these elections and because of the absence of the other powers.
