Statement by the Democratic Alliance on the Parliamentary Elections

The aim of the Democratic Alliance was to achieve wide political consensus on a work program for the next phase in Egypt, and to deepen the consensus among political parties on the priorities of the phase, so that the political forces may achieve an acceptable degree of harmony in their political endeavours in parliament, and in order to be able to complete the urgent reform that the people expect from the next parliament.

 Therefore, the main objective of forming ??the alliance was to establish a strong parliament, where a coherent parliamentary majority has an agreed political program that enables the parliament to work effectively and successfully in response to demands of the revolution and the people. Another objective of the alliance was to form a consensus among different political forces, making it representative of a wide range of political forces and various components of the Egyptian society.

That, in our view, would contribute to the formation of a parliament that reflects the various components of the Egyptian society, in order to be able to choose the Constituent Assembly that will draft a new Constitution, which would reflect the will of the people, taking-in their input and giving back to them great rewards.

Hence, the Democratic Alliance focused on work for the best law for the elections, and continued to press the law-makers, until we reached the current form of the law, which reflects an important part of the demands of political forces, and the goal was a law able to express the popular free will of the Egyptian public, so that popular participation is the real authority of the new political system, for the first parliament after the revolution.

The Democratic Alliance for Egypt (DAE) started two months after the revolution, in March this year. It became an important political coalition. Then, an electoral alliance was formed from that, and included some members of the DAE, by way of a general political coalition. We knew that it is difficult for an electoral coalition to include many parties, but we also knew the importance of pluralism and competition. Hence, the electoral coalition was set up to achieve the goals of the revolution, to prevent all those who corrupted political life from entering the next parliament. It certainly was not an alliance against anyone else. It is our belief that honest competition for national interests should regulate and control the work of the electoral alliance.

The DAE looks forward to free and fair elections, a great example to proudly record in Egyptian history, a shining example that opens the doors of freedom and democracy in Egypt. This requires all political forces – in this our first real experience of democracy – to work towards a culture of sharing, so we get the best rate of participation.

Incidentally, the DAE would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the brotherly people of Tunisia, who started the great Arab Spring, with the first successful democratic experience, and had the honour of being the first to spark the revolution, and also begin the first free and fair elections with positive and powerful participation and a high turnout, after the revolution.

The DAE stresses that the Coordinating Committee of the electoral alliance has set up candidate selection criteria and standards, and has always adhered to those, despite hurdles and difficulties encountered. It also exerted a major effort in order to achieve a coalition with a number of different forces and diverse trends, representing a wide spectrum of political parties. Those were: the Freedom and Justice party, Karama, Ghadd Al-Thawra, Labour, Islah & Nahda, Hadara, Reform, Al-Jeel, and Egypt Arab Socialist party, as well as the Liberals, and Freedom and Development, from whom two candidates were nominated for two ‘Individuals’ seats.

This coalition is now engaged in the elections in all constituencies where the electoral list or the ‘individual’ system will be used based on a collective program and platform derived from the alliance’s Basic Principles Document, which was approved last June. That document contains a clear collective vision that will hold for Egypt, and all its citizens, goodness and freedom and social justice.

As we near the first celebration of democracy in Egypt after the revolution, we call on everyone to work for the success of this experience, to be on level with the noble Egyptian revolution, so the next elections would be the beginning of the journey of hope for the Egyptian people, who suffered greatly under the previous regime. It is about time this great people emerged from its crisis to build the future that it so desires and deserves.