Egyptian Election…the MB is Leading Other Parties

Egyptian Election…the MB is Leading Other Parties

Islam online,
By Muhammad Arafa

The outcome of the first phase of the Egyptian parliamentary election aroused many critical points:

1-     The National Democratic Party is divided, not only among old and young members but also because of its relinquished members. Meanwhile, the Moslem Brotherhood comes to the second place in the parliament. On the other hand, the opposition, whether the old or renascent parties, is collapsing; a situation that calls into question the Egyptian party system, of 21 ineffective parties.

2-     The Egyptian ruling system will face a crisis as regard the participation of parties in the presidential election. For the amended constitutional article providing the approval of 5% of the parliament representatives, 23 of the lower house and 9 of the upper house, to have the right to run for presidency.

 

3-     The government may encounter potential tension because of foreign monitors’ statements, especially that of the head of the European Parliament delegation. These statements indicate that the first phase of election “lacks justice and fairness”. These comments coincide with American and European awaiting expectancy for the election outcome.

 

4-     Election frauds are committed, according to the civil-society organizations and the candidates of the Moslem Brotherhood, by judiciary elements instead of security bodies that used to committee such infringements. Accordingly, the Judges’ Club will conduct relevant investigations.

 

5-     The unrefined electoral registers, collective electorate enrollment, and the so-call circulated ballot have negative impact on the first real Egyptian democratic experiment, which is fully supervised by judiciary bodies and by local human right organizations.

 

6-     Vote buying becomes a remarkable and publicly declared phenomenon in 2005 election. It is said that 2005 polls are the most expensive, whose expenses amount to a $ 580 millions, according to non-official figures. Meanwhile, the legally fixed cost is 70.000 pound for each nominee.

 

Thus, the likely repercussions and the future challenges which the parliament election has brought about can be traced in the following points.

 

1- The Division of the NDP

 

Although the NDP is leading in the first stage of the election, won 26 seats and 97 nominees will stand for run-off polls, it has actually missed 41 seats, at rate of 25%. Therefore, 75% of its nominees have won, but not 85%, as claimed by Safuat el-Shreef, the NDP Secretary General.

 

It is noticeable that the number of the independent candidates, who will vie for the reelection, is up to 120, among them 44 of NDP-relinquished nominees, a number which is bigger than the NDP nominees who will contest for run-off polls, namely, 97 candidates. In 2000 election, the NDP has won only 38% of parliament seats so it was obliged to joint 200 of winner ex-NDP members in order to achieve the required ratio to impose its control over the parliament, 85%.

 

Thus, a two-sided problem comes to the surface; the status of those unwillingly jointed candidates is on one side, and the conflict between the old and the young members of the NDP is on the other side. The old members are given the chance to run for the election while the young members are undermined.  

 

2- The Moslem Brotherhood Leads

 

The Moslem Brotherhood has appointed 52 candidates to stand for the first phase of the parliamentary election; 4 won, six fell, while 42 will run for reelection. Subsequently, the movement’s success is 89%.

 

Keeping this margin, the Moslem Brotherhood may win up to 70 seats; a rate which will grant it the leadership of the opposition, after coming to the second rank regards the won seats. In such case, the Moslem Brotherhood will bring up the issue of its illegal status; which is termed as banned movement.

3- The Opposition Collapses

 

None of 89 candidates of the National Front for Change, which includes opposing parties along with seven other political powers, won.

 

 

In addition, only 7 out of 114 nominees of other opposing parties will run for reelection.

 

Furthermore, the opposing parties do not expect to win in the upcoming two phases of the parliamentary election, according to Hussein Abdel Razaq, the Security General of Tagamo’ Party. Therefore, the 21Egyptian parties are ineffective and infertile, a fact that is supported by the failure of the opposition in the last presidential election, in which it obtained only 1% of voters.

 

4- The Turnout

 

Low turnout in the parliamentary election underlines the unwillingness of citizens to participate in the political game, either via parties or casting votes.

 

The official figures of voting in the first phase of the parliamentary election are 24.9%. Sequentially, the candidates, even ministers, won with low margin, for example, the Minister of Finance, Boutros Khaly got 5% of votes while Housing Minister, Ibraheem Sleman, obtained 8% of votes.

 

” The plunging participation of citizens is a reflection of voters’ passiveness and their hatred of politicians, who are regarded as thieves, opportunists, and self-interest seekers,” Muhammad Said, the vice of Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, explained to el-Misery newspaper.

 

5- The Foreign and the Local Supervision 

 

Although the Egyptian official newspapers underscored the praise for the election paid by American and European delegates, election-process criticism is undeniable. The head of the European Parliament delegation observed some contraventions. He also criticized the impartiality of the Egyptian media for the favor of the NDP nominees. He, moreover, stated that the occupied Palestine has experienced perfect election, adding that the Egyptian election would have been better.