31 May - 6 June 2001
Issue No.536
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 May - 6 June 2001 Issue No.536 |
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Independents' day
The second stage of the Shura Council's mid-term elections has proved to be relatively rough sailing for the ruling National Democratic Party. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
In the first round of the second stage of Shura Council mid-term elections, held on Sunday, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) managed to gain only eight seats, one of them unopposed. In this round, as many as 242 candidates competed for 25 seats representing 21 constituencies in eight governorates: Gharbiya, Sharqiya, Daqahliya, Damietta, Ismailia, Suez, the Red Sea and Southern Sinai. The seat of Suez governorate was won unopposed by NDP's official candidate and Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi.
Voters for the Shura Council elections queue up at a polling station but the general turnout was extremely low photo: Youssri Aql
Run-off elections will be held on Saturday in six governorates. Thirty-four candidates -- 15 belonging to the NDP and 19 independents, will compete for 17 seats representing 14 constituencies.
The NDP has so far won 32 out of 88 contested seats -- 24 seats in the first stage and eight in the first round of the second stage. Three seats were won unopposed.
The second stage has proved to be relatively difficult for the NDP, despite the almost complete absence of the opposition and police harassment of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Hot weather, as well as political apathy, brought voter turnout to its lowest level, ranging between two and four per cent.
In Gharbiya's Tanta district, the two NDP official candidates were defeated. One of them, Nabil Mansi, is the former secretary of the NDP's provincial office. The competition in the run-offs is raging now between two independents for the professionals' (fi'at) seat and two "NDP independents" for the workers' seat.
Only seven opposition candidates contested Sunday's polls and all of them lost. The three candidates of the Muslim Brotherhood in Daqahliya governorate were barred from running after the government contested an Administrative Court's decision allowing them to compete. A statement by Daqahliya governorate's "Liberties Committee" said that the three "Brothers," along with 17 of their supporters, were arrested. Also in Daqahliya, two NDP official candidates, El-Sherbini Mohamed and El-Shahat Abu-Bakr, will face tough competition in the run-offs from Mohamed Rushdi and Mahmoud Abdel-Fattah, two independents who were members of the outgoing People's Assembly.
In Damietta, NDP's official candidate Samir Zaher, former chairman of the Egyptian Football Federation, will face a difficult run-off battle against businessman Samir El-Tilbani.
The hopes of all 13 women candidates in the second stage were completely shattered, raising to 18 the number of women who have failed. Five, including former MP Sawsan El-Kilani, ran in Ismailia. Four women will run as independents in the third stage.
In Sharqiya, NDP's official candidate and businessman Hussein Abaza easily won a seat but Zaki El-Sewedi, another NDP businessman, will face a difficult run-off against independent Gamal Badawi. Also in Sharqiya governorate, voters failed to show up at around 20 polling stations.
Although the polls saw NDP candidates competing mainly against NDP members running independently, the fray was also joined by a relatively large number of independents with no clear political affiliation. This will also be a feature of the third stage scheduled for 6 June in the remaining eight governorates, including Cairo and Alexandria. Independent candidates have so far managed to win six seats, including four in the northern governorate of Beheira. This forced Ahmed Osman, secretary of the NDP's Beheira provincial office, to resign.
The NDP, enforcing a recently-adopted disciplinary policy, decided this week to expel 29 members in the southern governorate of Minya. They are to be added to 312 members who were dismissed from the party's ranks in various governorates ahead of the Shura elections.
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