The farce has ended

By Ammar Ali Hassan

---

Egypt's parliamentary elections have seldom risen above the farcical. This time, though, things could well be different. The public has for too long been treated as a passive audience and while there are those who continue to insist that what is happening is little more than a silly game there are plenty of signs around to suggest that this time things will be different. The puppeteers, so used to directing the marionettes during their moment in the electoral limelight, are finding the strings harder and harder to pull.

The regime has come under pressure from both the opposition and outside observers. The way is now open for political and social forces absent from the political arena for more than half a century. Political life in Egypt, frozen, trivialised, isolated for decades, is once again showing signs of life. A relatively healthy environment has been created for the holding of elections, characterised by a degree of integrity not seen in Egypt since the July Revolution of 1952.

The elections will see an unprecedented competition unfold between the NDP and opposition parties. Then there is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is determined to win the 65 seats necessary for it to field a candidate in the next presidential elections. Should it succeed, the consequences will be enormous.

Those who eavesdrop on Egyptian conversations in streets and cafes, fields and factories, clubs and intellectual salons, fully realise how different the upcoming elections will be. The parties which have come into the light after being so long hidden away will not return to their cold headquarters to await orders from the regime. The national movements that have broken down barriers and crossed all red lines will not disappear. Neither the Emergency Law, nor the security soldiers personnel that enforce it, can force the genie back into the bottle.

This week's Soapbox speaker is a political analyst.