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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 Another bad day at the office
By Gamal Essam El-Din
The results of the first round of the second stage of parliamentary elections: more of the same for the National Democratic Party (NDP). In nine governorates on Sunday, the ruling party lost 47 seats out of the 134 up for grabs, by all accounts a setback for a party still reeling from the loss of 93 seats in the first stage. Further losses are expected in run-off elections, scheduled for Saturday, compounding the NDP's woes.
In all, 232 candidates in 116 constituencies qualified for the run-offs. They include 78 NDP candidates, 146 independents and eight from three opposition parties.
The NDP nose-dive contrasted sharply with the more than decent showing by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Out of 28 candidates, 14 qualified for the run-offs; several are expected to win. Six Brotherhood candidates won seats in the first stage.
Significantly, the leftist Tagammu and Nasserist parties continued their winning ways. Five candidates, two from the Nasserist Party and three from Tagammu, qualified for the run-offs. Two Nasserists are entering the run-offs but as independents.
In the first stage, winners included three members of the Tagammu and two independents with Nasserist tendencies.
The liberal Wafd Party continued to languish. Only three out of 53 Wafdist candidates made it to the run-offs. In the first stage, the Wafd managed just one seat.
The first round of the second stage took place in Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Gharbiya, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Northern and Southern Sinai, the Red Sea and Aswan. A total of 1,386 candidates, running in 67 constituencies, competed for 134 parliamentary seats. The third and last stage, scheduled for 8 November, will determine the fate of the remaining 160 seats representing eight governorates. In accordance with a Constitutional Court ruling in July, 67 vote-counting and 5,031 polling stations have been placed under the supervision of 6,420 members of the judiciary.
The big story on Sunday was the battering meted out to the NDP. It mustered only nine seats, dropping 47 seats altogether in the first round. After Sunday's results, 140 NDP candidates out of 284 had limped out of the race. The number is expected to rise to 160 after Saturday's run-offs.
For NDP Secretary General Youssef Wali, whose supporters are pictured above, it was a clean sweep back to parliament. Not so for the party, however
But it wasn't just the party's inability to put up numbers on the board that hurt; its losses were qualitative as well. Some of its highest-ranking veteran members could not repeat past glories. The who's who list of the fallen included Sherif Omar, chairman of parliament's Health and Environmental Affairs Committee; Tareq El-Guindi, secretary-general of the NDP's Sharqiya office; Mustafa El-Said, a former economy minister; and Samir Zaher, former chairman of the Football Federation. Three NDP losers have a parliamentary record that spans 35 years. Since elections began on 18 October, NDP heavyweight losers have included four provincial secretary-generals, four chairmen of parliamentary committees, one former minister and two former provincial governors.
Saving face for the NDP were Minister of Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid, former minister of electricity Maher Abaza and business tycoon Abdel-Fattah Diab. Some prominent NDP figures, to vie for seats in the run-offs, include Salah El-Tarouti and Mohamed Moussa, chairmen of parliament's Culture and Constitutional Affairs Committees; Hamdi El-Konayessi, chairman of Egyptian Radio; and former minister of local administration Mahmoud El-Sherif.
Following the official announcement of the first stage results, 61 independent winners decided to register themselves in the new parliament as NDP deputies, a move which several national newspapers branded as a breach of the voters' trust. A few commentators warned that these "NDP independents" could be brought before the law. In response to the criticism, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said they had submitted applications to rejoin the party's ranks ahead of the run-offs in the first stage. "This is natural because they are originally the party's sons," Ebeid said.
The three Wafdists who qualified for the run-offs include two journalists with Al-Wafd newspaper: Mahmoud El-Shazli and Mohamed Abdel-Alim. The third, Fouad Badrawi, is the Wafd's secretary-general and candidate in the Daqahliya district of Nabarouh.
Three candidates of the Tagammu Party, out of a total of 14, will contest the run-offs -- Mukhtar Gomaa in Aswan, Atef El-Maghawri in Sharqiya and Ali Zahran in Damietta. Two of Tagammu's five deputies in the outgoing parliament, Raafat Seif and Mohamed El-Doheiri in Daqahliya, lost their seats.
Two members of the Nasserist Party will contest the run-offs. Party chairman Diaeddin Dawoud in Damietta's Faraskour district, and Abdel-Azim El-Maghrabi in Kafr Al-Sheikh's Dessouq. Two Nasserist-oriented independents, journalist Hamdin Sabahi in Kafr Al-Sheikh and Magdi El-Ma'sarawi in Daqahliya, will also join the run-offs.
So-called "non-NDP independents" met with success, including veteran deputies Fikri El-Gazzar and Tawfiq Zaghlul in Gharbiya governorate.
Nine independents won seats in Sunday's battle and 146 qualified for the run-offs. At least 120 independents are, in fact, NDP members.
Only two women out of 44 female candidates qualified for the run-offs: the NDP's Galila Awad in Southern Sinai and Azza El-Kashef in Damietta.
Related stories:
See Elections 2000
