Boycott blues

Wafd Chairman Noaman Gomaa's decision to nominate himself for president will not alter the Tagammu and Nasserist parties' boycott, reports Fatemah Farag

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"Our position is to boycott these elections," re- iterated Hussein Abdel-Razeq, secretary-general of the left-leaning Tagammu Party, following reports that the party's political bureau had decided to vote for Noaman Gomaa, the Wafd Party's leader.

"We did not field a presidential candidate and we will not vote for anyone," he added.

Confusion over Tagammu's position stems from the fact that the party, while boycotting the poll, has not called on the public to do the same.

The party is keen to qualify its position and says it respects Gomaa's decision to nominate himself though in doing so the Wafd broke ranks with the Tagammu and Nasserist parties, having earlier agreed to present a united front on the boycott as they had with the 25 May referendum on amending Article 76 of the constitution. This will not, though, as Abdel-Razeq explained, prevent Tagammu members from attending Gomaa's campaign functions.

The Tagammu stand emerged after heated debate between those in the party who wanted to issue a public call for a boycott and the party's chairman, Rifaat El-Said, who favoured supporting Gomaa.

"Said came under great pressure from the regime to play the game and support Gomaa. However, others in the party felt that if we were going to participate then we should have fielded our own candidate and that participation at this point would be inconsistent with our position against the amendments to Article 76," said a senior party member speaking on condition of anonymity,

"These are not real elections," points out Abdel-Razeq. "When you deprive the majority of society from the right to stand [as independents] then you are not applying a democratic process. And we have stood firm against giving political parties bribes in an attempt to get them to play along." Abdel-Razeq was referring to the LE500,000 that the government has promised to provide political parties wiht to support their presidential candiddate's campaigns.

Both the Nasserists and the Tagammu will be focussing their efforts on campaigning against Mubarak. Until the political bureau of the Nasserists convenes next week to discuss details, the party's position remains unchanged: "Diaaeddin Dawoud, the leader of the party, has announced it will enter into a strong political and media campaign against the policies that have resulted in the marginalisation of Egypt's role and the impoverishment of the Egyptian citizen."

The Tagammu has also made clear its chief goal is to mobilise against Mubarak and his policies. "We will focus our efforts to expose the negative impact of his rule over the past 24 years," said Abdel-Razeq.

They have already started, with a series of conferences in Old Cairo, Assiut and Damanhour. And, according to Abdel-Razeq, the party is preparing for an anti-Mubarak march sometime before election day and is working on two political statements explaining why they are opposed to Mubarak's re-election.