EGYPT: Selected Candidates Prepare for Election

By Adam Morrow Reprint | | Print |

Adam Morrow

CAIRO, Aug 25 2005 (IPS) - Egyptians will vote in multi-candidate presidential elections for the first time Sep. 7, but their choices have been limited.

After controversial qualification procedures the list of aspirants has been narrowed down to ten men, some familiar, others less so. Two prominent political parties have said they will boycott the contest, while the banned Muslim Brotherhood has not been allowed to field a nominee.

After a constitutional amendment earlier this year allowing for election of the president from among several candidates, a final roster of contenders was announced by the Presidential Election Commission Aug. 11. Besides incumbent President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak of the National Democratic Party the list includes Ayman Nour of the high-profile Al-Ghad Party and Nomaan Gomaa of the long-established Al-Wafd Party.

There are a handful of lesser-known contenders from smaller parties that have virtually no parliamentary presence, such as Wahid Al-Uksory of the Egypt Arab Socialist Party, Mohamed El-Agroudy of the Accord Party, Osama Shaltout of the Solidarity Party and Mamdouh Qenawi of the Social Constitutional Party.

With election campaigning in full swing, Mubarak has vowed to stick to the same pragmatic foreign policy marked by its closeness to the United States, and to the gradualist liberal economic policy that has defined his tenure. Nour has promised to stamp out corruption, ease unemployment and rein in soaring inflation. Gomaa promises to establish elections as the basis for government legitimacy.

The campaign platforms of less prominent candidates are just as varied. Fawzy Ghazal of the Egypt 2000 Party wants to distance Egypt from the United States. Ibrahim Tork of the Democratic Unionist Party wants economic reform with improved exploitation of natural resources.

The constitutional amendment allowing multiple candidacies does away with a previous referendum system in which citizens were allowed a simple yes or no vote to a single nominee backed by parliament. That arrangement has kept Hosni Mubarak president since October 1981.

The change comes with stringent qualification requirements. Candidates must represent legal political parties and garner the support of at least 250 elected officials. Egypt has a People’s Assembly with 454 seats and an Advisory Council with 264 seats. Elections are held to both, though some members are nominated.

The strict criteria have eliminated a number of aspirants. Two contenders were turned down because the activities of their party had been suspended, an election commission spokesman said. Another was disqualified because his party was established after the new law was passed.

The exacting requirements, not to mention the hasty introduction of the new law, were enough to alienate at least two established parties, the Nasserist Party and the leftist Tagammu Party.

“The restrictions applied to the electoral process in practice convert it into a referendum to reinstate the current president, although it is disguised as an election,” Tagammu Party secretary-general Hussein Abdel-Razeq told the state press earlier this month. “Under no circumstances can our party participate in deceiving the public and acting as if these elections will be fair, honest and democratic.”

The absence of any contenders from Egypt’s most formidable opposition bloc, the Muslim Brotherhood, is notable. The group’s leadership is reportedly mulling over which candidate to throw its considerable weight behind.

Many members of the Brotherhood have been arrested since it led a wave of pro-reform rallies in March. Some of the highest-ranking members of the group have remained in administrative detention for months, facing charges of illegal association and sedition. An emergency law, itself the subject of much pre-election discourse, allows the state to hold suspects without trial indefinitely.

But the group has taken a measured stance. “They don’t seem to be boycotting the elections; in fact, they’re telling people to vote,” Simon Kitchen, a Middle East analyst at the New York-based political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in an analysis of the election. “But they don’t seem to be endorsing any particular candidates.”

Kitchen said there might be a degree of disagreement within the group over the direction to take. “The historical leadership has an understanding with the government, but some of the younger ones want to go further,” he said. “They want to hold the government to account, especially for detaining a number of their members.. They certainly won’t support the ruling party.”

One thing is certain: an endorsement from the Brotherhood would represent a mighty boon for any contestant. The banned group boasts two million active members and another three million supporters. Egypt has a population of 78 million.

Campaigning officially began Aug. 17 and will continue until Sep. 4. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the initial vote, citizens will be expected to go to the polls again Sep. 17, where the two most popular candidates would compete for majority in a second round.