- Election CoverageReform Issues
- July 21, 2010
- 3 minutes read
Opposition remains undecided
Joint opposition parties are still to decide on their stance against the current regime’s procedures through boycotting the elections. Egyptians have become accustomed to witnessing elections which have been widely rigged by the NDP; however with the belief that rigged elections will allow little chance to earn more than a handful of seats in parliament, most parties are determined to participate as usual.
Egypt‘s strongest political opposition the Muslim Brotherhood has not as yet decided on its stance however the group’s policy maintains that they participate in each and every election and at all levels. In The last parliamentary elections the MB acquired one fifth of the parliamentary seats. Discussions are still under way and the decision will be publically announced. The group’s members however are prepared to participate fully in an attempt to improve Egypt ‘s present condition. In fact an online petition had been launched calling for changes including the free, fair and transparent running of elections with international or judicial monitoring and supervision.
The Democratic Front Party, led by Osama el-Ghazali insists on boycotting despite acknowledging that a boycott won’t be effective if other opposition parties go ahead and participate in the elections. He described the elections as a fraud referring to the last Shura midterm elections where opposition acquired only 4 out of the 182 seats
According to political analysts boycotting could send a strong message to the ruling party, but only if the boycott is a collective decision while others perceive that boycotting the elections could actually leave more room for manipulation by the regime.