'Overall positive' says US

US officials, after closely watching Egypt's parliamentary elections "on the ground", appeared cautious not to antagonise Cairo, writes Khaled Dawoud from Washington

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With Iraqi civilians and US soldiers dying daily, leaks and investigations all implying George W Bush's administration misled the American public over the war, reports on American secret prisons in Eastern Europe and money paid to Iraqi journalists to publish stories that cast the US occupation in a favourable light, US newspaper coverage of Egypt's month-long elections has tended to be squeezed into a couple of paragraphs in the briefs column. What longer reports have been published tended to concentrate on the success at the polls of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood or else the violence that marred the vote in many constituencies.

On an official level the US reaction has been mostly favourable. While US officials have conveyed their "concern" to Egyptian counterparts over "the violence that has surrounded the recent phases of the Egyptian electoral process" US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the "elections are overall an important step on Egypt's path towards democratic reform."

Questioned by journalists on 1 December over reports of violence and the alleged arrest of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters McCormack avoided mentioning the officially banned group by name: "Our people on the ground are working hard to gather the facts concerning the arrests. I don't have all the facts concerning these arrests but, putting aside the specific case of Egypt, I think that we would say that we would be concerned about any misapplication of the law by a government in order to impede the peaceful political expression of people trying to participate in an electoral process."

"Now, specifically with respect to Egypt, I can't attest to the particular facts concerning these arrests [of Muslim Brotherhood supporters]. I know that others have made claims, others have spoken out about this issue. But based on the information I have here I cannot provide you a full picture concerning the particulars of those arrests."

McCormack's reference to "our people on the ground" is probably the first public acknowledgement by a US official that a deal was reached with the Egyptian government to allow the presence of American observers despite there being no official announcement to that effect.

Cautious replies over the arrests of Brotherhood members were followed by an overall assessment that must have sounded like music to the ears of Egyptian officials: "Let's not lose sight of the fact," McCormack continued, "that this is part of a democratic reform process that is advancing in Egypt. You had multiparty presidential candidate elections [in September]. We are now nearing the end of parliamentary elections in Egypt in which a number of independents have won seats. I think this is one of the biggest gains of independent seats in the history of Egyptian parliamentary elections. So that is significant. You see an opening of the political process in Egypt. That is positive. So while some of this violence is concerning, and while there are questions concerning some of the arrests that have taken place, let's not lose sight of the fact that these elections overall represent an important step in the democratic reform process in Egypt."

For good measure McCormack added that "we have not received any indication that the Egyptian Government isn't interested in having peaceful, free and fair elections".

McCormack's carefully chosen words appeared intended to mollify a long-term ally whose help Washington needs in settling a number of key regional issues, not least Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and restoring stability in Iraq.

Following the 27 November round of the poll, as allegations surfaced about the use of hired thugs, mainly by ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates, who intimidated voters as the police stood idly by, McCormack did make statements suggesting that the government may have been mainly responsible for that violence. A few hours later, though, a senior State Department official contacted Washington-based Arab correspondents to clarify the US position.

In a telephone interview the US official told Al-Ahram Weekly that while the administration found the violence that had accompanied the latest round of Egypt's elections deplorable "it seems that it has been between candidates.

"I don't think," he continued, "the government started this. We don't have this kind of information."

Reports, the official said, suggested NDP supporters might have been behind the violence "but we are aware that the NDP sometimes gets mixed with the government. But police did not do it. What I'm being told now is that a majority of the cases of violence were started by the other guys."

"If we thought the government did it we would say so. We were told that most of the violence was started by the NDP but many incidents were also instigated by Muslim Brotherhood supporters."

Other US officials, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Elizabeth Cheney, expressed their concern over the position of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood on democracy and human rights. In a briefing to Arab women correspondents in Washington on 30 November Cheney criticised the Brotherhood and questioned its commitment to women's rights, freedom of worship and democratic processes.

Senior US officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have made statements underlining that Washington supports Egypt's position vis-à-vis the Muslim Brotherhood, understood by most observers as tacit US backing for Egyptian laws banning political parties based on religion or class, including the Muslim Brotherhood and communist parties.