Egyptian Minister: Egypt’s democracy is theoretical

Moufid Shehab Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs dismissed allegations of fraud and rigging in Egypt ‘s elections.

In a conference held at Saqiyet al-Sawy’s cultural center in Zamalek, he asserted that elections were not rigged. He suggested however that mistakes by controllers, candidates or even voters could occur.

Although Shehab welcomed the involvement of opposition parties in the upcoming parliamentary elections he confirmed his wishes that the National Democratic Party would win the majority seats.

The minister maintained that the judicial supervision and monitoring of the last elections in 2005 had many disadvantages. He criticized that judges had to postpone cases in order to attend the ballots, adding that a judge should not be turned into a clerk that supervises ballots. "That is why we have substituted direct judicial supervision of the elections with the Supreme Election Committee that we have formed for this purpose".

Shehab commended the democracy in Europe describing it as more mature than democracy in Egypt describing Egypt ‘s democracy as theoretical. He hoped that democracy could be applied stressing that a transparent electoral race is in the interest of all political parties.

Shehab highlighted that there are 24 political parties in Egypt , with the presence of only four or five significant ones. He alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood group benefited the most from the absence of the opposition parties in the 2005 elections claiming that the group acquired more seats than they could handle.