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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Last call
By Gamal Essam El-DinWhen voters go to polling stations this October, they will be choosing the nation's first new parliament of the third millennium and the 21st in Egypt's modern history. But being a part of history is not always enough to motivate voters, and President Hosni Mubarak shifted the election campaign into high gear on Sunday, when he issued a decree calling on voters to participate in the ballot.
For the first time in Egypt's 134-year-old parliamentary history, the ballot will take place under full judicial supervision. Consequently, the elections will be spaced out over three stages, scheduled to run from 18 October to 14 November. Contrary to earlier expectations, the Interior Ministry announced that the three stages would not be determined by geographical terms, but rather by groupings of governorates, with the first two stages covering nine governorates each and the third consisting of the eight governorates left.
The first stage, from 18 to 24 October, includes the governorates of Alexandria, El-Beheira, El-Menoufiya, Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, Fayoum, Sohag and Qena. The second, from 29 October to 4 November, will cover the governorates of Daqahliya, Gharbiya, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Damietta, northern and southern Sinai, the Red Sea and Aswan. The third, from 8 to 14 November, will consist of the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Qaliubiya, Beni Suef, El-Minya, Assiut, Marsa Matrouh and the New Valley.
With four weeks left before the first stage of balloting begins, candidates will begin submitting their registrations with the Interior Ministry today, formalising their intention to run. Registration will run for a five-day period. Interior Minister Habib El-Adli will announce next week the names of the judges who will chair the auxiliary and principal polling stations. It was also decided this week that Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed will chair the general judicial committee entrusted with supervising the elections.
Opposition parties howled that the decision was unconstitutional, although the appointment was made in accordance with the amendments introduced last April to a 1956 law regulating the exercise of political rights. Wafd Party officials declared the decision to be an infringement of the role of the Judges' Club, a claim echoed by the association's members.
Yehia El-Rifa'i, honourary chairman of the Judges' Club, argued that the decision violates last July's ruling of the Constitutional Court that only members of the judicial authority should supervise principal and auxiliary polling stations. "The Prosecutor-General is by no means a member of the judicial authority," El-Rifa'i stated. "He is attached to the Justice Ministry, which is part of the executive authority. By taking this decision, the government shows a determination to violate the constitution and deny independent judges [the right] to completely supervise the ballot in favour of the Interior and Justice Ministries," El-Rifa'i said.
In another development, the complete list of the candidates nominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was finally released Sunday. After a long delay, the NDP announced that it was fielding 444 candidates -- the exact number of elective parliamentary seats -- compared to the 439 candidates nominated for the 1995 elections. The announcement was made by Kamal El-Shazli, the NDP's assistant secretary-general and minister of state for parliamentary affairs, only four days before candidates applications were due to be received by the Interior Ministry. El-Shazli said the NDP was nominating six cabinet ministers and four former cabinet ministers, as well as 11 women, three Copts, seven businessmen and five press and media people.
According to El-Shazli, roughly 50 per cent, or 224, of the names on the list are workers and farmers. Of these, 35 occupy leading positions in trade unions and 90 are leaders of agricultural cooperative societies. The rest of the list includes 35 university professors, 45 lawyers, 30 engineers and 10 doctors. New faces make up 42 per cent of the names on the NDP list, El-Shazli noted, adding that this means 186 members of the outgoing People's Assembly have been excluded.
When asked what criteria were used to nominate candidates, El-Shazli said they were chosen on the bases of reputation, popularity and their ability to solve the problems of the common man. As for NDP members who did not find their names on the list, El-Shazli was stern, threatening that they would face disciplinary action if they decided to run as independents. "However," he softened, "I would like to inform the excluded members that they have other chances to be nominated by the NDP, in Shura council elections next year or even in the next parliamentary elections. The NDP never abandons its members."
El-Shazli announced that President Mubarak was meeting with the NDP's politburo yesterday to review the party's platform and its campaigning plans. Mubarak also met with chairmen of the opposition parties on Sunday. "In these meetings, President Mubarak wants to convey the message that he is a president for all of Egypt," El-Shazli said. "President Mubarak also expressed his wish that the number of opposition seats in the next parliament will be higher."
Topping the list of the excluded NDP members are Abdel-Moneim Emara, former chairman of the Higher Council for Youth and Sports; Saad El-Khawalka, former chairman of parliament's transport committee; and three deputies who were stigmatised for violating the parliamentary code of ethics.
Related stories:
As smoothly as possible 14 - 20 September 2000
Parliament with a difference? 31 August - 6 September 2000
See also Elections
