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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region Interview International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Communities in contest
By Amira IbrahimIn the fiercely tribal communities of Upper Egypt, political trends are set by cultural alliances, not party affiliations. But among the main communities vying for prominence in the governorate of Aswan, competition is so tight that after the first round of voting last Sunday, all six seats were left up for grabs. Of the 94 candidates who participated in Sunday's failed ballot, 12 will face off this Saturday in the run-off election. But although the number of contestants has gone down, the strong sense of family loyalties has hardly diminished.
Personal concerns are still considered to be represented by a candidate of the same ilk rather than any political ideology. "I'll vote for any Nubian candidate, whoever he is, just to honour the Nubian name," declared Anwar El-Sadat, a Nubian boatman from the district of Nasr Al-Nuba. "Our lands and our islands were taken from us by force. Many Nubians are discriminated against by the police," he snapped.
Aswan is divided into three major communities, each with its own agenda and concerns. Nubians, many of them relocated after the building of the Aswan High Dam caused an inundation of Nubian lands, generally consider themselves to be the original inhabitants of the area. But descendants of Arab tribes who settled in the area, the largest being the Ga'fra, have inhabited Aswan for a long time. Finally, there are the new residents -- most of them descendants of other Arab tribes who moved to Aswan from neighbouring governorates. Known as the mughtaribin (settlers), they make up the rest of the constituency.
Of the 12 survivors of Sunday's ballot, five are from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), one is from the leftist Tagammu Party and six are independents. The Aswan governorate is divided into three electoral constituencies, each with two seats available -- the worker seat and the professional seat.
During the first round of elections in the Aswan constituency, 120,000 registered voters chose among 39 candidates representing Nubians, Ga'fra and other Aswan residents competing for two seats. Although the NDP has traditionally selected its nominees from among the three main communities, Nubians and other residents were furious when the NDP chose two Ga'fra candidates. But Nubian candidate Mohamad Galal, running for the professional seat, triumphed anyhow, taking home 4,227 votes and edging out his NDP opponent Taha Saleh by one vote. For the workers' seat, the NDP's Ga'fra Zein Hamad topped his rivals with 3,192 votes. Hamad will compete in Saturday's runoffs against the independent Abdel-Maguid Othman, from the Ababda tribe, who gained 3,152 votes.
The estimated 6,000 Nubian voters are bound to back their only candidate in the run-off, but it is more complicated for the Ga'fra tribes, which count for 10,000 votes. Many believe that if the Ga'fra back both their candidates, they will alienate the rest of the voters and hence lose both seats. Some say their only shot at one seat is to agree to back a non-Ga'fra candidate for either seat in exchange for votes. The turnout of voters who are neither Nubian nor Ga'fra, however, is expected to be low, as they have no interests tied to any candidate. Those that do turn up are expected to cast their votes for the NDP candidate.
Perhaps the most heated battle will be waged in the constituency bringing together the Nasr El-Nuba district and that of Kom Ombo. Nubians who were forced to give up their homes and land almost 40 years ago were mostly resettled among 46 villages in the Nasr Al-Nuba district. Although Nasr Al-Nuba was built specifically as compensation for those uprooted by the Aswan High Dam, none of the Nubians actually own the houses they live in or the land they work on -- and some received no compensation at all.
Despite decades of mourning the loss of their lands, Nubians have not given up on a seemingly impossible dream of reclaiming the so-called Land of Gold. At the very least, they claim, they should be properly compensated. Out of the 27 candidates who stood in Sunday's election, 10 were Nubian. Each one ran on a platform of Nubian rights to land and better treatment by authorities.
The Nubian community is characterised by its determination to defend its identity among other Upper Egyptian communities. Most feel they have been stripped of everything they once had, starting with their lands and ending with job opportunities. With no industrial projects established in the area, Nubian candidates are concerned about growing unemployment. Some 46,000 Nubian voters will choose between two Nubian candidates for the worker seat this Saturday: Tagamuu Party candidate Mukhtar Gom'a and the NDP's Abdel-Hamid El-Masri, both former parliament members.
Every vote counts for Aswan's competing communities, as the above photo so clearly illustrates
photo: Mohamed Wassim
With a rich political background in leftist politics, Gom'a was arrested several times throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s before finally being elected to parliament in 1990. He lost his seat in the 1995 elections, though he recently won a court ruling acknowledging him as the winner. Nubian constituents who spoke to the Weekly have expressed their dissatisfaction with his rival, El-Masri, claiming that he resides in Cairo and knows little about their troubles. "He has done nothing to push programmes for the development of Nubian villages," said one elderly Nubian man. "We can hardly feel he is beneficial to our community."
With one Nubian candidate locked into the worker seat, the race for the professional seat is far more complicated. The Ga'fra are pitted against the mughtaribin that make up a coalition of sorts in Kom Ombo known as Al-Hadaba Al-Watania. The umda (mayor) of Higaza village, Mahmoud El-Gahmouri -- who belongs to Al-Hadaba Al-Watania -- will run against the NDP's Saad Darwish, a Ga'fra tribe member and former parliamentarian. With 25 years of serving as umda, El-Gahmouri has made his reputation throughout neighbouring villages fighting the chronic vendetta traditions of Upper Egypt.
"The people here do not need a bridge or a hospital to be built. They need someone who lives with them, cares about them, shares their problems and helps to solve them," said El-Gahmouri's nephew, Mustafa, a lawyer who ran in 1995 but lost in a run-off election against the Ga'fra candidate.
The mughtaribin have long envied the Nubians their consistent representation -- A Nubian has taken at least one seat in every election -- but the people of Al-Hadaba Al-Watania now have a chance for equal representation and a voice in parliament. Even so, there is an equal possibility that Nubians could take home two worker seats, as happened in 1990.
In the third and final constituency of Edfu, where 28 candidates stood in the elections Sunday, money and gifts were largely used to sway voters. Radios and mobile phones were distributed to villagers and some candidates even built school classrooms. But with Edfu's high education rate, money did not seem to make a big splash.
Two independents, each belonging to the Ga'fra tribe, will hold a run-off for the professional seat in Edfu. NDP candidate and a former parliament member Hussein Mu'wad will run against his tribe rival Ali Rayan. When speaking about elections in Aswan, Edfu is categorised by locals as the "American" constituency, as no parliament member keeps his seat twice in a row. If Mu'wad won the battle on Saturday, he will be the first to break the so-called American rule.
Related stories:
See Elections 2000
