Opposition boycotts lacklustre election

By Gamal Essam El-Din

The Council, which has no legislative powers, is made up of 264 members. Two-thirds of them are chosen by secret ballot in general elections and the remaining third are appointed by the President. A member's term of office may last up to six years, but one half of the elected and appointed members are chosen by lot to lose their seats after three years. Others are elected or appointed in their place. Losers are eligible for re-election or re-appointment.

The Council's functions include preparing reports on current issues and debating laws that are considered supplementary to the Constitution before they are sent to the People's Assembly for approval.

Candidates for the June elections began registering their names on 21 April and registration will continue until 7 May. Kamal El-Shazli, the NDP's assistant secretary-general, said the ruling party is preparing for victory by nominating candidates in all constituencies. The NDP's list of candidates, which has been approved by Mubarak in his capacity as NDP chairman, was announced last Tuesday. He added that the choice of candidates was determined by good reputation, popularity, partisan commitment, hard work and a proven record of public service.

For their part, opposition figures argued that campaigning for seats in a Council that has no legislative or supervisory powers is not worth the effort or the expense.

The Wafd party of Fouad Serageddin announced last week that it was boycotting the elections for this reason. In a "statement to the nation," the Wafd said the Council should be armed with legislative and supervisory powers or else it should be disbanded to "relieve the state budget of its financial burden."

The Wafd, claiming that the current electoral system favoured the NDP, said citizens do not bother to vote in Shura Council elections. "Since the 1923 Constitution was repealed, the ruling party has resorted to the systematic rigging of elections to impose its will on the nation's political life," the Wafd said. "All parliamentary elections, the last of which took place in November 1995, were rigged... As a result, the ruling party now controls at least 98 per cent of such representative bodies as the People's Assembly, Shura Council and city councils."

The leftist Tagammu party of Khaled Mohieddin does not plan to field candidates in the elections, but for a different reason. According to the party's secretary-general Rifaat El-Said, campaigning is too costly for Tagammu's modest financial resources.

"The constituencies of the Shura Council cover vast areas. Each is four times as large as a People's Assembly constituency," El-Said pointed out. However, El-Said, who was appointed a Shura Council member three years ago, indicated that Tagammu will "politically" support any of its members who decides to run for election.

Ahmed El-Sabahi, chairman of the small Umma party, also argued that the expense of running for election has become too high. "Wealthy people, such as businessmen, prefer to join the ruling party, and most of their financial support goes to this party, in the hope of having a place on its list of candidates for Shura Council or People's Assembly elections," said El-Sabahi.

The Nasserist and Islamist-oriented Labour parties adopted similar positions.

Diaeddin Dawoud, chairman of the Nasserist party, was quoted as saying that election rigging has produced an "unbalanced representation" of parties in parliament. "We [opposition parties] proposed many times an agenda of political reform in an attempt to introduce a free, fair and transparent electoral system, but the ruling party never bothered to listen to us," Dawoud said. "To ensure the integrity of any parliamentary elections, we have three simple demands: revising the lists of voters' names, full judicial supervision of the elections and time on radio and television to explain our platforms to as many people as possible."

The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood also decided to boycott the elections.

The Liberal party of Mustafa Kamel Murad is the only opposition party to have decided to contest the elections. In 1995, this party nominated 44 candidates but none of them managed to win a seat.

The NDP won an easy victory in the 1995 elections, which were also boycotted by most opposition parties. The NDP now has 248 seats in the Council and the remaining seats are held by 11 independents and five opposition figures, most of them, if not all, appointed by the President.

The outgoing 132 members include the Council's Speaker Mustafa Kamal Helmi, four cabinet ministers, four former ministers, former Prime Minister Ali Lutfi, five journalists [out of 10] and 10 women [out of 15].

High officials who are expected to be appointed to the Council include Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli and Economy Minister Youssef Ghali. Also likely to be appointed are such prominent businessmen as Ibrahim Kamel, chairman of the Egypt-US Presidents' Council, Abdel-Moneim Seoudi, chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, and Ahmed Ezz, the Federation's deputy chairman.

Mohamed Ragab, majority leader in the Council, insists that it is does play a vital political, social and economic role. "Over the past three years, the Shura Council has addressed some of the most serious national and regional issues, such as terrorism, democratisation, the rights of women, poverty and human development, economic reform and and national security," he said.