Target NDP
Parliament's first week of work was marked by fierce opposition criticism of the ruling party on three fronts -- electoral integrity, political reform, and the economic crisis. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
On Saturday, the liberal-oriented Wafd Party filed an appeal against the interior minister's decision to hold parliamentary by-elections in 23 districts on 25 December.
The by-elections are meant to fill seats left vacant by 16 draft-dodging NDP MPs who submitted their resignations last month, one NDP MP (Abdallah Tayel, the former chairman of parliament's economic affairs committee whose membership was revoked after he was convicted of corruption charges), and three who passed away. The remaining three by-elections are meant to fill Shura Council seats made vacant after one Shura member -- business tycoon Farag El-Rawas -- resigned and two others passed away.
According to the Wafd's legal experts, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli's decision to organise by- elections in the 17 districts where seats were left vacant by 17 draft-dodging MPs (16 from the People's Assembly and one from the Shura Council) was both illegal and unconstitutional. Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the party's parliamentary speaker, said, "the People's Assembly's decision to accept the resignation of the 16 NDP draft-dodging MPs... violated... the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruling" that "categorically ordered the Assembly to strip the draft-dodgers of their membership, rather than accept their resignation."
Had that occurred, the NDP would not have been able to field candidates in the by-elections, since they would have been confined to those who ran in the original races in 2000. In general, most opposition MPs are convinced that the party compelled its draft-dodgers to resign for precisely that reason -- in order to field new NDP candidates.
"This political tactic by the NDP is ultimately aimed at preventing opposition candidates [who competed against the NDP draft dodgers in 2000] of winning these by-elections, and thus reinforcing its long-time strategy of monopolising political and parliamentary life," was the way an editorial in Al-Wafd newspaper put it.
Meanwhile, a ruling issued by the Beni Suef Administrative Justice Court on Monday seemed to support the Wafd Party's case against the NDP. The court ordered that the interior minister's decision to open the door for nominations of new candidates for the 25 December by- elections in two Beni Suef districts (Ahnasia and Al-Fashn) be revoked. The contest, the court said, should be confined to those who ran in 2000.
Cairo University constitutional law professor Yehia El-Gammal told Al-Ahram Weekly that parliament's decision to accept the resignations was an infringement of the constitution. "Despite its talk of political reform," El-Gammal said, "the NDP continues to reveal that talking is one thing, and acting is something else altogether." According to El-Gammal, resigning would have been a legitimate option if the draft-dodgers' parliamentary membership had still been valid. "The SCC ruling, [however], signified that their membership had [actually] been invalid since 2000."
The NDP appeared completely oblivious to the Wafd's campaign. A party insider told the Weekly that the Beni Suef ruling meant nothing "because it can be overturned by the Supreme Administrative Court".
The NDP, meanwhile, was busy attempting to refute accusations that the party had promised the draft-dodgers -- in exchange for submitting their resignations -- that their relatives would be nominated to run in the by-elections. The party made an extremely public show of its new "electoral college" system of picking candidates. According to NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, the system is part of an overall strategy aimed at democratising the party's internal structures.
Prospective candidates must win the most votes in their district's NDP electoral college to be officially nominated. They must also be authorised by the party's six-member steering office. "This is essential," El-Sherif said, "to ensure that the nominees have not been implicated in any corruption cases and have done their military service."
El-Sherif also said that the electoral college voting was closely supervised by the steering office. Gamal Mubarak and Zakaria Azmi, for instance, monitored Cairo's electoral colleges. Votes were also cast in see-through glass boxes (despite the party's traditional aversion to the practice), and in public.
The results, however, revealed that some of the draft-dodgers did manage to have their relatives and friends nominated. The brothers of draft- dodgers Mahmoud Abdel-Ghaffar (Ahnasia, Beni Suef) and Mohamed Abdallah Rifaie (Al- Nozha, Cairo), for instance, each managed to obtain the nomination of his respective district.
Some party members also insinuated that the electoral college system does not provide safeguards against nominees bribing members of the college (around 100) to vote for them.
While the NDP officially submitted the names of its 23 candidates on Tuesday, the Wafd and other opposition parties decided not to field their own candidates, even though the door for nominations will remain open until Sunday. Arguing that all of the NDP's manoeuvrings in the prelude to the by-elections make clear the party's intention to guarantee a victory -- even if it involves breaking the law -- the Wafd said it would not run in an election whose conclusion was already certain.
The NDP's efforts in preparation for a much- discussed national dialogue also irked many political commentators. Party leaders have already held three meetings with the chairmen of five opposition parties, and are planning more such discussions with the chairmen of four others (the Greens, Social Solidarity, Egypt 2000, and the Generation). Other than a few Shura Council seats, this latter group does not even have any parliamentary representation.
NDP insiders said the discussions were primarily meant to spare the ruling party any "surprise" demands that might be made by opposition parties once the dialogue itself begins.
The party also seemed to have slowed down the pace of the discussions, with many in parliament convinced the actual dialogue may not take place for another year. These sorts of rumours inspired Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama to write that, "the issues discussed in the preparatory meetings have not shown that the dialogue will address any basic political reforms, especially amending the constitution, curtailing presidential powers, and ensuring the rotation of power. I hope the dialogue will not be struck by a heart attack before its is launched in a year or two, and before we get concrete political reform in the end."
The NDP was also facing heat for the government's economic policies. As many as 25 opposition and independent MPs submitted a memo to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour, asking that a general hearing be held regarding the 29 January decision to float the pound, and its disastrous impact on the vast majority of citizens. "We, the undersigned MPs, think that the existing government's decision to free the exchange rate on 29 January was hasty and preposterous. Worse, it has thus far failed to address the catastrophic consequences of this decision," the memo said. As a result, "opposition and independent MPs want to exercise supervisory powers over the government in an attempt to stop its failures, and save citizens from the [endless] rise in food prices."
A fierce attack against the government's export and investment policies was also launched by NDP heavyweight -- and chief of presidential staff -- Zakaria Azmi. An earlier campaign launched by Al-Wafd's Abdel-Nour concerning the poor relationship between the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) governor and Prime Minister Atef Ebeid was seen as a catalyst to the governor's dismissal late Monday.
On Saturday, the liberal-oriented Wafd Party filed an appeal against the interior minister's decision to hold parliamentary by-elections in 23 districts on 25 December.
The by-elections are meant to fill seats left vacant by 16 draft-dodging NDP MPs who submitted their resignations last month, one NDP MP (Abdallah Tayel, the former chairman of parliament's economic affairs committee whose membership was revoked after he was convicted of corruption charges), and three who passed away. The remaining three by-elections are meant to fill Shura Council seats made vacant after one Shura member -- business tycoon Farag El-Rawas -- resigned and two others passed away.
According to the Wafd's legal experts, Interior Minister Habib El-Adli's decision to organise by- elections in the 17 districts where seats were left vacant by 17 draft-dodging MPs (16 from the People's Assembly and one from the Shura Council) was both illegal and unconstitutional. Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the party's parliamentary speaker, said, "the People's Assembly's decision to accept the resignation of the 16 NDP draft-dodging MPs... violated... the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruling" that "categorically ordered the Assembly to strip the draft-dodgers of their membership, rather than accept their resignation."
Had that occurred, the NDP would not have been able to field candidates in the by-elections, since they would have been confined to those who ran in the original races in 2000. In general, most opposition MPs are convinced that the party compelled its draft-dodgers to resign for precisely that reason -- in order to field new NDP candidates.
"This political tactic by the NDP is ultimately aimed at preventing opposition candidates [who competed against the NDP draft dodgers in 2000] of winning these by-elections, and thus reinforcing its long-time strategy of monopolising political and parliamentary life," was the way an editorial in Al-Wafd newspaper put it.
Meanwhile, a ruling issued by the Beni Suef Administrative Justice Court on Monday seemed to support the Wafd Party's case against the NDP. The court ordered that the interior minister's decision to open the door for nominations of new candidates for the 25 December by- elections in two Beni Suef districts (Ahnasia and Al-Fashn) be revoked. The contest, the court said, should be confined to those who ran in 2000.
Cairo University constitutional law professor Yehia El-Gammal told Al-Ahram Weekly that parliament's decision to accept the resignations was an infringement of the constitution. "Despite its talk of political reform," El-Gammal said, "the NDP continues to reveal that talking is one thing, and acting is something else altogether." According to El-Gammal, resigning would have been a legitimate option if the draft-dodgers' parliamentary membership had still been valid. "The SCC ruling, [however], signified that their membership had [actually] been invalid since 2000."
The NDP appeared completely oblivious to the Wafd's campaign. A party insider told the Weekly that the Beni Suef ruling meant nothing "because it can be overturned by the Supreme Administrative Court".
The NDP, meanwhile, was busy attempting to refute accusations that the party had promised the draft-dodgers -- in exchange for submitting their resignations -- that their relatives would be nominated to run in the by-elections. The party made an extremely public show of its new "electoral college" system of picking candidates. According to NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, the system is part of an overall strategy aimed at democratising the party's internal structures.
Prospective candidates must win the most votes in their district's NDP electoral college to be officially nominated. They must also be authorised by the party's six-member steering office. "This is essential," El-Sherif said, "to ensure that the nominees have not been implicated in any corruption cases and have done their military service."
El-Sherif also said that the electoral college voting was closely supervised by the steering office. Gamal Mubarak and Zakaria Azmi, for instance, monitored Cairo's electoral colleges. Votes were also cast in see-through glass boxes (despite the party's traditional aversion to the practice), and in public.
The results, however, revealed that some of the draft-dodgers did manage to have their relatives and friends nominated. The brothers of draft- dodgers Mahmoud Abdel-Ghaffar (Ahnasia, Beni Suef) and Mohamed Abdallah Rifaie (Al- Nozha, Cairo), for instance, each managed to obtain the nomination of his respective district.
Some party members also insinuated that the electoral college system does not provide safeguards against nominees bribing members of the college (around 100) to vote for them.
While the NDP officially submitted the names of its 23 candidates on Tuesday, the Wafd and other opposition parties decided not to field their own candidates, even though the door for nominations will remain open until Sunday. Arguing that all of the NDP's manoeuvrings in the prelude to the by-elections make clear the party's intention to guarantee a victory -- even if it involves breaking the law -- the Wafd said it would not run in an election whose conclusion was already certain.
The NDP's efforts in preparation for a much- discussed national dialogue also irked many political commentators. Party leaders have already held three meetings with the chairmen of five opposition parties, and are planning more such discussions with the chairmen of four others (the Greens, Social Solidarity, Egypt 2000, and the Generation). Other than a few Shura Council seats, this latter group does not even have any parliamentary representation.
NDP insiders said the discussions were primarily meant to spare the ruling party any "surprise" demands that might be made by opposition parties once the dialogue itself begins.
The party also seemed to have slowed down the pace of the discussions, with many in parliament convinced the actual dialogue may not take place for another year. These sorts of rumours inspired Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama to write that, "the issues discussed in the preparatory meetings have not shown that the dialogue will address any basic political reforms, especially amending the constitution, curtailing presidential powers, and ensuring the rotation of power. I hope the dialogue will not be struck by a heart attack before its is launched in a year or two, and before we get concrete political reform in the end."
The NDP was also facing heat for the government's economic policies. As many as 25 opposition and independent MPs submitted a memo to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour, asking that a general hearing be held regarding the 29 January decision to float the pound, and its disastrous impact on the vast majority of citizens. "We, the undersigned MPs, think that the existing government's decision to free the exchange rate on 29 January was hasty and preposterous. Worse, it has thus far failed to address the catastrophic consequences of this decision," the memo said. As a result, "opposition and independent MPs want to exercise supervisory powers over the government in an attempt to stop its failures, and save citizens from the [endless] rise in food prices."
A fierce attack against the government's export and investment policies was also launched by NDP heavyweight -- and chief of presidential staff -- Zakaria Azmi. An earlier campaign launched by Al-Wafd's Abdel-Nour concerning the poor relationship between the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) governor and Prime Minister Atef Ebeid was seen as a catalyst to the governor's dismissal late Monday.
