Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 251 14 - 20 December 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Brotherhood's toe-hold in parliament

By Nevine Khalil

The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood fielded 36 candidates in the recent election battle, according to Brotherhood spokesman Maamoun El-Hodeibi. Several of them withdrew in protest at alleged vote-rigging before polling closed down at 5pm on 6 December. But one Brotherhood candidate, Ali Sayed Fat'h El-Bab, managed to make it to the new People's Assembly, winning a seat as an independent in the Cairo constituency of Tebbin-Helwan.

Fat'h El-Bab won 11,361 votes out of the 21,000 or so cast in his constituency. He claims, however, that his share would have soared to around 15,000 had there been no interference in the election process.

Speaking in the Agouza office which had been his campaign headquarters, Hodeibi said that "about six or seven" Brotherhood candidates had announced their withdrawal in protest at the way the elections were run. "It was not an official withdrawal, but they saw that the situation had got out of hand," he maintained. "They believed that the results had already been decided, and they feared for their safety." Candidates who walked out included Ahmed Salama in Damietta and Abdel-Hamid El-Ghazali in the Cairo constituency of Manial.

Hodeibi himself had contested the elections in the Cairo constituency of Dokki, but was defeated in the first round by Social Affairs Minister Amal Osman.

Fat'h El-Bab, interviewed by the Weekly, claimed that his campaign had faced restrictions and that 17 of his supporters were detained before the 29 November first round. Three of them were released shortly afterwards but the remaining 14 were kept behind bars until the second round was over. "These were ways to frighten, hinder or stop the people from showing their support for me," he charged, adding that although opposition parties had faced similar harassment, Islamist candidates had borne the brunt.

He himself decided against withdrawal, "because there were indications that we could continue". Any irregularities in his constituency occurred only towards the end of the day of the runoffs "after the people had already made their choice". The voters' choice had been clear, he maintained: "My immense grassroots support was too obvious for anyone to tamper with."

According to Fat'h El-Bab, his election campaign had not been affected by last month's closure of the Brotherhood's downtown headquarters. "I depended on my popularity and personal connections in the area," he said. Fat'h El-Bab is a member of the council of the Union of Iron and Steel Workers, an industry which is the main lifeline of the Helwan-Tebbin area.

Fat'h El-Bab said he planned to remain as an independent, although there was a possibility of switching to the Islamist-oriented Labour Party, "which would be no betrayal, because there is already an alliance between the Brotherhood and Labour".

Asked about his agenda for the People's Assembly, Fat'h El-Bab replied that it would be dominated by the issues most affecting his industrial constituency and its working-class residents, including the labour laws, and health and social insurance laws which the house is expected to pass during its five-year term. "These are may priorities, along with infra-structure and services."

 

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