Al-Ahram Weekly Isssue No. 249 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Shaping the future

Voters went to the polls yesterday to choose the new assembley

In the largest parliamentary elections in Egypt's history, voters went to the polls yesterday to choose MPs to fill the 444 seats of a new People's Assembly, which will shape the nation's political and economic future for the next five years.

About 36,000 polling stations in 222 constituencies opened their doors at 8am to receive voters from a national electorate of over 20 million voters. The Assembly's seats were contested by a record 3,980 candidates, including 3,150 independents. For the past few weeks, they have been locked in what was probably the fiercest election battle in more than four decades.

In addition to the independents, who included about 100 candidates representing the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, all the major political parties, led by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), took part. The NDP fielded 439 candidates followed by the Wafd (182), the Islamist-oriented Labour Party (120), the Liberals (61), the Nasserists (43) and the leftist Tagammu (40). The results will be announced by Interior Minister Hassan Al-Alfi on Friday afternoon. But the final shape of the coming Assembly will not be revealed till after the rerun elections next Wednesday.

President Hosni Mubarak cast his ballot at a school near his Heliopolis residence, saying that the large number of candidates was a sign of a healthy democracy. "I have long encouraged candidates to stand for election and called on them to take part in the electoral process", he said.

"There are clear indications that the elections are free and clean. There is clear progress towards democracy, and this is a very good sign," Mubarak added.

Prime Minister Atef Sidki, who cast his ballot at another school in Heliopolis, said the large number of candidates and the heavy turnout of voters was as sign of a "greater interest in participation in public life". He predicted that the new Assembly "will include all political trends, but the majority will be for the NDP."

Yassin Serageddin, a Wafd Party candidate and brother of the party's chairman Fouad Serageddin, cast his ballot at a school in the Qasr Al-Nil constituency where he was running against 13 other candidates. He expressed satisfaction with the progress of the balloting.

"I believe that we are having a fair poll this time and that the police are not taking sides," Serageddin said, adding that voter turn-out in the constituency was unprecedented.

Ibrahim Shukri, leader of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, also pronounced himself satisfied with the balloting process, and was particularly pleased with the lack of police interference. But he complained that a large number of his supporters had been unable to find their names on the voters' lists and that one of his poll-watchers had been banned from entering a village in the constituency.

At the Qalyubiya constituency of Kafr Shukr, Khaled Mohieddin, leader of the leftist Tagammu Party, was thronged by peasant supporters as he arrived to cast his vote. Mohieddin, who appeared confident of victory, described the conduct of the balloting process in the constituency as "not bad". But he complained that since a maximum of six poll-watchers were allowed inside polling stations, his party had no observers at some stations. As they filed in to cast their ballots, many voters said they would choose Mohieddin.

Claiming that Tagammu represents 10 per cent of the national vote, Mohieddin predicted that the party would win up to 15 seats in the new Assembly.

Leader of the Democratic Nasserist Party, Diaeddin Dawoud, also commended the fairness of the elections at his northern Delta constituency of Faraskour. Dawoud, however, complained that judges supervising the elections were poorly distributed across the constituency, and that the authorities were not acting with sufficient firmness to put a stop to rigging attempts in some polling stations. Dawoud later submitted a formal complaint demanding that the voting in the polling stations of Faraskour city be suspended. He claimed that supporters of independent candidates Mohamed El-Abbasi and Mohamed Quita had "disrupted" the voting in these stations in their favour.

More serious complaints came from several constituencies, particularly those in which the ruling NDP was facing stiff competition from leading Islamists, members of both the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and the Labour Party. Adel Hussein, secretary general of the Labour Party, complained of extensive rigging in favour of his NDP rival, Abdel-Moneim Emara, head of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports. He charged also that a number of his campaign workers were arrested by the police, and others beaten by Emara's supporters.

Similar charges have been made by a number of Muslim Brotherhood candidates, including Maamoun El-Hodeibi, in Dokki, Seif El-Islam Hassan El-Banna, in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, Mohamed Abdel-Qodous in Boulak and Mukhtar Nouh in Mattariya.

But Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, insisting that the elections were free and clean, described them as "a festival for democracy in Egypt". The heavy turnout of voters, he said, indicated an increased political awareness, and the large number of candidates was a sign that the scope of democracy had expanded. "This public ballot underlines complete confidence in the pluralism, freedom and democracy," El-Sherif said.

Ahmed Fathi Sorour, speaker of the outgoing Assembly, running in the Cairo constituency of Sayeda Zeinab, said the elections were a "healthy exercise of democracy". He said an "unprecedented climate of freedom" prevailed, and added that he was optimistic about the future of democracy: "The new Assembly will truly represent the will of the entire nation and will be capable of making major political, economic and social achievements as Egypt approaches the 21st century."

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