Parrying parties

What next after the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the appeals of 12 unlicensed parties seeking legal recognition, wonders Mohamed El-Sayed

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Abul-Ela Madi, a 48-year-old activist and creator of the unlicensed Wassat (Centre) Party, was anxiously waiting at the State Council Court on Saturday. Along with another 11 party founders, Madi was desperately waiting for the Supreme Administrative Court ruling to legalise his party. He had been trying since 1996, and after appearing dozens of times in court throughout the past decade, Madi felt he might finally obtain official recognition of his moderate Islamist-leaning party. But he and the other prospective party leaders were out of luck.

Despite President Hosni Mubarak's recent promises of giving more freedoms to political parties, Judge El-Sayed Nofal summarily rejected the 12 appeals for not meeting the prerequisites of the political parties law. The ruling upheld the decision by the Political Parties Committee (PPC) to deny licence to the 12 parties.

The court ruling came as a blow to the aspiring creators of the 12 parties, who described it as "unreasonable and unacceptable". Madi said it was "illogical" since it is based on the amended parties law enacted in 2005, despite the fact that Wassat's licence request was submitted to the PPC in 2004. "It was rejected the same year, and we appealed then and there," he explained. "Today's decision applied the 2005 law retroactively, which is unprecedented." Madi added that the ruling "is evidence that there is no sincere intention by the government to introduce political reform, and that Egypt still lacks an independent judiciary."

MP Hamdeen Sabbahi, architect of the yet unlicensed Al-Karama (Dignity) Party, was in disbelief of the court's decision. Sabbahi criticised the verdict as "a preamble to bequeathing the presidency to Gamal Mubarak", President Mubarak's son and rumoured heir apparent.

Shortly after the verdict, members of the 12 parties and human rights activists protested in front of the State Council. They demanded that the PPC, which they believe is controlled by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), be disbanded since it prevents the emergence of any new political party which could pose a threat to the ruling NDP. There may be some truth to their claims. Between 1977 and 2004, the PPC rejected 63 party applications and approved only two -- Al-Wifaq Al-Watani Party (National Accord) and Al-Geel Al-Dimoqrati Party (Democratic Generation).

For its part, the NDP distanced itself from any involvement in this week's court decision. "The accusations levelled against the NDP by the [unlicensed] parties are unfounded," retorted Mohamed Kamal, spokesman and member of the NDP's Policies Committee. "This is a court ruling, not an NDP ruling," Kamal told Al-Ahram Weekly. He suggested that the rebuffed parties resubmit their requests to the PPC, but the party founders have different ideas of what course to pursue next.

Sabbahi, who has also been trying to register his party for a decade, didn't heed the decision and maintained that his party derives its credibility from the people, not the government. Meanwhile, Madi remains determined to obtain legal recognition for his party. "This ruling will not stop us from retrying to license our party," he declared, adding that he will soon take action to meet the prerequisites of the amended parties law and resubmit his papers to the PPC.

Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri, a prominent scholar and co-founder of Wassat, told the Weekly he had expected the regime to be marginally flexible in the creation of new parties, "but it seems that it is not willing to do so because the scene is being prepared for bequeathing power [to Gamal Mubarak]." Elmessiri further doubts that the government will authorise any new parties in the near future because it suffers from "short-sightedness".

He divulged that many prospective party leaders are considering launching their platforms without government approval. "Everywhere in the world parties are created just by notifying the government," he argued, and described the government as unaware of how to run a modern state. "It is still influenced by the 1960s model, in which one political party has a firm grip on political life," he purported. "If an explosion among the masses occurred as a result of government stubbornness, it would not benefit any one."

The controversial court ruling came a few days after a 4 January report by the Washington-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the parties law of intentionally stifling opposition parties. The report slammed the laws governing the process of registering new political parties as aiming to exclude and suspend opposition parties. "In Egypt, in practice it is the government and the party of government that determine which other parties will be recognised and which will not," the report stated. The result "is the routine denial of applications for registration of new political parties, through the use of criteria set forth in the political parties law that are open to subjective and arbitrary application."

HRW cited Madi's repeated attempts to register his party as clear evidence of the deleterious effects of the law on prospective political parties, "and the manner in which the government and the ruling NDP exercise unfettered discretion to deny such parties their lawful participation in the country's political life." The report argued that if Mubarak was to make good on his promise to "enshrine the liberties of the citizen and reinvigorate political parties," as stated in his 2005 presidential campaign, the Egyptian government must reform the parties law and cease obstructing the establishment and effective participation of political parties.

The scathing report also called on Mubarak to amend Law 177 of 2005 to disband the PPC and repeal overly broad stipulations "which invite government abuse". Such reforms, it continued, are necessary for Egypt to be in compliance with relevant obligations under domestic and international law. "Reforms are particularly imperative in light of the government's potential plans to reinstate party-list voting for parliamentary elections," it stressed.

It is highly unlikely, however, that the government will take HRW's recommendations into consideration. More than 20 amendments have been made to the 1977 parties law, but none have ever interfered with the PPC.