NDP sweeps Shura Council polls

By Gamal Essam El-Din

Handoussa	Bishai	Bishara	Youssri

The election was part of a procedural session which followed two rounds of mid-term elections to fill 88 Council seats. Tharwat Abaza and Mohamed Mursi were elected deputy speakers.

With the opposition boycotting the polls, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) easily rode to victory, winning all 50 seats in the first round of balloting held on 7 June. Twenty two NDP candidates were unopposed. The ruling party also swept all of the remaining 16 seats in run-off elections that took place on 14 June.

Exercising his constitutional powers, Mubarak appointed 47 Council members on Sunday, bringing the total number of newly-elected and appointed members to 135. The list of appointees includes 16 new members and 31 old faces.

The NDP had been assured of a landslide victory in the Council's mid-term elections. But the list of appointed members took observers by surprise, because it did not include a single representative of the opposition. The Council now includes only three members from the opposition, who were all appointed by President Mubarak in previous years. It also has eight independent members, most of them former members of the NDP.

The old Council had five members from the opposition and 11 independents.

The list of appointed members did not include Mamdouh Qenawi, a former member of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party and Attiya Sakr, chairman of Al-Azhar's Fatwa Committee. The two were outspoken critics of government policies. Sakr was replaced by the moderate Azharite preacher Ismail El-Diftar.

According to Ayman Nour, a Wafdist member of the People's Assembly, the exclusion of the opposition from the list of appointed members proves that the party was right to boycott the elections. "The Shura Council is like a surrealist painting," he said. "It is neither a consultative nor legislative council in the true sense of these words. So, there is no explanation for its existence, except that it is a gathering of some of the people most loyal to the government."

The NDP majority leader in the Council, Mohamed Ragab, however, argued that the Council's performance should not be assessed in terms of how many opposition or pro-government members it includes. "The Council is a gathering of experts," he said. "During their debates, they are not concerned with opposing or supporting any kind of policies. Rather, they are primarily concerned with objectivity, because the Council aims to provide advice in a most scientific and objective form."

But Mubarak's list of appointees was also interesting in other ways. It included three prominent Coptic businessmen: Louis Bishara, a manufacturer of ready-made garments in 10th of Ramadan City, Tharwat Bassili, chairman of a pharmaceutical company in 6th of October City, and Raouf Boutros Ghali, chairman of a tourism company. This raised to nine the number of Copts in the Council, and to nearly 40 the number of businessmen.

Actress Madiha Youssri was also appointed to the Council, raising to nine the number of women members.

Other appointees include Farouk Ismail, president of Cairo University, Abdel-Reheim Nafie, a former governor of Damietta and currently chairman of the NDP's constitutional committee, Heba Handoussa, director of the Economic Research Forum and Adel Bishai, professor of economics at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

Gamal Badawi, a prominent journalist who last week resigned his post as chief editor of the Wafd Party newspaper, was not appointed. There had been rumours that Badawi's resignation was because he had gone against the party's policies and accepted an appointment to the Council.

The membership of five other journalists was renewed.

Mubarak also renewed the membership of eight incumbent and former ministers. The Council now includes seven incumbent ministers, eight former ministers and two former prime ministers.

Commenting on the new make-up, Yehia El-Gammal, a professor of constitutional law at Cairo University, said that there is a pressing need to arm the Council with legislative powers. "This Council has compiled magnificent studies and reports on the various aspects of life in Egypt, but the problem is that the government always turns a deaf ear to its recommendations," he said. "The Council should be given a greater legislative role."

On Tuesday, NDP Council members met with President Hosni Mubarak to discuss foreign and local issues, ranging from the Middle East peace process and Arab reconciliation efforts to Egypt's economic reform programme and dumping on the local market.

Speaking about foreign policy, President Mubarak said that the United States is playing a role in the peace process, "but Israel has become flagrantly defiant of the US administration, to the extent that it has directed open warnings to Washington." He added: "For our part, we are deliberating and taking our time."

Responding to a question on nuclear armament, the president indicated that "Israel has nuclear weapons, but we are not sure whether it carried out a nuclear underwater test recently or not." Mubarak warned that an irresponsible decision taken by a country in possession of nuclear arms could pose great risks to the entire world. He added that Egypt has no intention of possessing nuclear weapons.

Mubarak praised the role played by the Shura Council in Egypt's political life. The Council's debates, he said, have always been useful in expounding laws and giving valuable advice to decision-makers.

Chairmen of the Council's nine committees were also chosen at the meeting with Mubarak. Most of the incumbent chairmen kept their posts, except for the agriculture and irrigation committee, whose chairman, Ahmed Abdel-Akher, was replaced by Saad Hagras, a long-time expert in local and international agricultural organisations. Abdel-Akher had broken away from NDP ranks and ran in the elections as an independent.