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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Election fever
By Gamal Essam El-DinA record number of new faces had registered for the forthcoming parliamentary elections by Monday's deadline. And among the 4,250 candidates, some 1,000 hopefuls were businessmen, between 60 and 80 were Copts, and between 80 and 100 women. The ballot, held under full judicial supervision for the first time and spaced over three stages, will begin on 18 October.
The 4,250 candidates -- compared to 4,040 in the 1995 and 2,681 in the 1990 elections -- will compete for 444 parliamentary seats. An estimated 872 candidates represent political parties, with the remaining 3,378 running as independents. The latter figure includes some 3,000 members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), who decided to run independently after the party refused to field them officially. As one political analyst noted, independent candidates "are independent just in name." As in previous elections, he added, a major part of the battle is NDP versus NDP.
The NDP officially fielded 444 candidates, equivalent to the number of seats up for grabs. At least 50 of them are businessmen.
Businessmen running independently include Rami Lakah, recently rumoured to have fled the country to avoid LE1.2 billion in debts but who returned to Cairo last week.
Another surprise was that the two Kamel business brothers, Mohamed and Ibrahim, have decided to fight uphill battles against leading NDP figures. Mohamed Kamel will face Kamal El-Shazli, NDP strongman and minister of state for parliamentary affairs, in Al-Menoufiya governorate's Al-Bagour district, in a contest widely hailed as business versus politics, while Ibrahim Kamel will face another businessman, Ahmed Ezz, in Al-Menoufiya's Menouf district.
Mohamed Kamel, the Wafd party's secretary-general in Al-Menoufiya governorate, will run independently. Informed sources said that Noaman Gomaa, the Wafd party's newly elected chairman, refused to nominate a Wafdist against El-Shazli.
Another surprise is that El-Shazli, who won the 1995 elections uncontested, is facing 10 rivals this time. El-Shazli has occupied the Al-Bagour seat for 34 consecutive years.
Two other leading NDP figures, Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali and Speaker of Parliament Fathi Surour, also face rival candidates, respectively in Fayoum and Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district. Zakaria Azmi, chief of the presidential staff and NDP candidate for Al-Zeitoun district in eastern Cairo, on the other hand, is standing uncontested.
In Port Said, the governorate's three districts are expected to be captured by business candidates. The NDP has fielded three well-known tycoons: Abdel-Wahab Qouta, chairman of Port Said's Association of Businessmen, Mohamed El-Masri, chairman of Port Said's Chamber of Commerce, and Mahmoud Sobh, a major investor in export and import services. Hamed El-Shennawi, a businessman who was excluded from the NDP list of candidates, will run independently.
Another feature of the election battle is a doubling in the number of Coptic candidates. During the 1995 elections only 40 Copts stood: this time round an estimated 80 are likely to stand as candidates. Predictably, many have business connections, including the NDP candidates Economy Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali in Cairo, Esmat Nathan in Alexandria and Medhat Shehata in Al-Beheira governorate. The majority of Coptic candidates, however, will run as independents.
Women candidates are expected to range in number between 80 and 100, compared to around 50 in 1995, with the majority running as independents. Some face battles with veteran male candidates. Esmat El-Merghani, a lawyer with the Afro-Asian Association of Lawyers, will run independently against Hamdi El-Sayed, a veteran MP for the NDP and chairman of the Physicians' Syndicate, in Cairo's Al-Nozha district while Mariam Mustafa, a university professor, will face Adel Eid, a prominent Islamist-oriented lawyer, in Alexandria's Bab Sharq.
For their part, the opposition parties and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have fielded 428 candidates. About 80 of them were nominated by the Brotherhood, despite a police crackdown intended to discourage them. The most prominent are Seif El-Islam Hassan El-Banna, running in Cairo's Abdin district against NDP businessman Talaat El-Qawas, and spokesman Maamoun El-Hodeibi running in Giza's Doqqi district against Amal Osman, deputy speaker of the outgoing parliament. Three members of the same family, Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, his wife Jihan El-Halafawi and brother Khaled, will run as the Brotherhood's candidates in Alexandria's Al-Attarin, Al-Raml and Bab Sharq districts respectively.
Members of the Islamist-oriented Labour party, the activities of which are currently frozen, will run as independents. The party's chairman Ibrahim Shukri declined to nominate himself but Magdi Hussein, editor-in-chief of the party's Al-Shaab newspaper, who is currently serving two years in prison, managed to register his name in Cairo's Shubra district.
In the meantime, the Interior Ministry's new regulations for election campaigns were generally welcomed by political parties. The regulations ban electoral promotion that involves insulting religious values and national unity or violates the constitution and laws. They also place a ceiling of LE10,000 on campaign expenditures -- a figure described by many as unrealistic.
Related stories:
Last call 21 - 27 September 2000
As smoothly as possible 14 - 20 September 2000
New support for women 7 - 13 September 2000
Parliament with a difference? 31 August - 6 September 2000
See Elections 2000
The 1995 Elections
