7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Tough battle ahead
The NDP may find it difficult to repeat its easy wins of the first two stages of the Shura Council's mid-term elections in the final phase due to begin today, reports Gamal Essam El-Din
The mid-term elections of the Shura Council, a consultative body with no legislative powers, promise stiff competition when the third and final stage of balloting begins today in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Kafr El-Sheikh, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Aswan and the New Valley.
In today's competition, 241 candidates will vie for 33 seats representing 25 constituencies. Run-off elections will be held on 12 June. One seat has been won already; Mahmoud El-Shazli, official candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was the only candidate for the New Valley governorate.
The NDP is fielding 34 candidates -- two of them running against another two in Aswan which is represented by two seats only in the council -- in the third stage. Opposition parties have approximately 10 candidates. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is fielding a single candidate in this stage. The Brotherhood's only other candidate in the Shura elections competed unsuccessfully in the first stage. Candidates include three women and eight Christians.
The Brotherhood's candidate, Mohamed Amer, is running in the town of Borollous in the Delta governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh. He successfully evaded reported police harassment of Brotherhood candidates to file his candidacy papers with authorities.
The remaining candidates are primarily NDP members who decided to run as independents after the party declined to nominate them officially. They number approximately 200, and eight of them were members of the outgoing People's Assembly.
Today's poll promises to be the fiercest of the three stages. The NDP's official candidates in Cairo and Alexandria are running against strong independent rivals from the business and media sectors. The race gained momentum two weeks ago after the Administrative Court ordered that Sayed El-Rawas and Ahmed El-Amawi, the NDP's official candidates for the Cairo districts of El-Sayeda Zeinab and El-Zeitoun respectively, be barred from running. In handing down the ruling, the court stated that businessman El-Rawas had not performed his military service and can barely read and write, although his official papers claim that he is a university graduate. As for El-Amawi, who is minister of manpower, the court ruled that he is ineligible to run for the workers' seat, which he is contesting. Both El-Rawas and El-Amawi reacted by filing appeals with Cairo's Urgent Matters Court.
El-Sayeda Zeinab is predicted to witness the most intense competition. In 1995, El-Rawas successfully ran in his first Shura elections. El-Rawas, the agent of a Japanese auto-maker, seems to have friends in high places. The auto retailer is facing three rival businessmen: Said Shabayek, Reda Elwan and Ahmed Salama. El-Sayeda Zeinab's battle will also be contested by the Wafd Party's candidate, Tawfik Lutfi, and independent female hopeful Hoda El-Qumi.
In the El-Gamaliya district of Cairo, independent Gamila Ismail, a TV announcer and the wife of Ayman Nour, a young MP who was expelled from the Wafd Party, is running against NDP veteran Mohamed Ragab. Ismail is supported by Nour's popular following in Bab El-Sha'riya district. El-Gamaliya's seat is also contested by three Coptic independent candidates: Edward Saad, Nabil Hanna and Wagih Iqladious.
Equally fierce will be the electoral battle in El-Ezbekiya district. This battle is contested by two rival businessmen in the contracting sector: independent Essam Abbas, vice- president of the Arab Contractors Group, and the NDP's Helmi El-Geziri, chairman of the Abdin district [municipal] council and owner of a private contracting company. The two exchanged accusations of corruption and irregular financial practices in the past two weeks.
The battle in the Qasr El-Nil district in downtown Cairo is raging primarily between two NDP members. The first is Nabih El-Alaqami, the NDP official candidate and secretary for youth affairs. The second, Ali Shamseddin, defected from the party's ranks and decided to run as an independent.
In Alexandria, Mohamed Farag Amer, NDP candidate and a businessman in food processing, will be fighting 11 candidates. Foremost among these is Ibrahim Abdel-Malek, a member of the suspended Islamist-oriented Labour Party. In Moharram Bey district, Khaled El-Zaafarani, an Islamist with the Liberal Party, is running against NDP nominee Mohamed El-Banna.
In the second stage of polling which concluded on Saturday, the NDP won 21 seats, three of them unopposed. So far, the NDP has won 46 out of 88 contested seats: 25 seats in the first stage and 21 in the second stage. Six seats were won unopposed. Independents managed to capture 10 seats.
Saturday's battle was marred by an outbreak of violence in the governorates of Gharbiya, Sharqiya and Daqahliya. In Gharbiya's El-Santa district, a police officer and five Central Security Forces men were injured in a confrontation with demonstrators supporting independent candidate Mohamed Wagih Sukkar. Sukkar alleged that his supporters were prevented by police forces from voting in order to help NDP candidate Abdel-Hasib El-Imam win. A similar scenario occurred in the Daqahliya district of El-Manzala. The supporters of independent Mohamed El-Kirani alleged that police forces intervened in favour of NDP candidate Shawqi El-Ilidi. El-Kirani's supporters hurled stones at police forces and cars. A police officer and five policemen were injured.
The second stage saw three businessmen win seats. They are Abdou Saqr, an owner of a large furniture- manufacturing company, El-Mo'ataz Abdel-Maqsoud, chairman of the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving, in El-Gharbiya, and Zaki El-Sewedi, a manufacturer of electric cables, in Sharqiya.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page