Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 247 16 - 22 November 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Campaigns under curfew

By Omayma Abdel-Latif

Despite a year-long night-time curfew, the guns have not fallen silent yet in Mallawi, a town in the governorate of Al-Minya, where a confrontation between security forces and Islamist militants rages unabated. But there is another, more subdued, battle currently taking place in the troubled town: 12 candidates are vying for four parliamentary seats in the 29 November elections. Curiously enough, none of them has an Islamist platform.

Sabah Girgis, a 43-year-old vendor in the Mallawi market, said she will vote for anybody who can bring the curfew to an end. "People like us know nothing about policies and we don't know who belongs to the Wafd or the Watani (National Democratic Party)," she said. "We only know people, and we vote for whoever serves our interests. This curfew has been going on for so long."

Sabah was not the only one to be hard hit by the curfew. Mallawi used to be a bustling business centre, but last week the Mallawi court declared the bankruptcy of 2,617 traders who could not repay bank loans and were not even able to pay their taxes.

The fight security measures had its toll on the election battle photo: Khaled El-Fiqi

The curfew has also had an impact on the election battle. Little campaigning, if any, appears to be in progress. On 26 July Street, Mallawi's main thoroughfare, there are only four banners. Three of them belong to NDP candidates, whose slogan, "development, security and stability", is written beneath a huge picture of President Hosni Mubarak.

Other banners and posters in the usually cordoned-off side streets made no mention of the war against terrorism. The candidates appear to have left that battle to the security forces.

Mallawi is divided into two constituencies, with a total of four parliamentary seats. Four candidates represent the NDP, a fifth is a Wafdist, a woman called Amal Rashad, and the remaining seven are independents. They include another woman and a Copt.

Unlike other parts of Egypt, the slogan "Islam is the solution" is not plastered over the city's walls. The absence of the Islamists is partly due to the fact that Lutfi El-Sayed, a Labour Party member who was planning to contest the elections, has been in detention for the past two moths. But there are also other reasons.

The Islamists "decided to withdraw from the election battle because they believe it will get them into a serious confrontation with security forces. They prefer to act underground to avoid becoming the target of police attacks," said Dr Mohamed Abul-Esaad, a history professor at Al-Minya University and an expert on Islamist militancy. "Even if they were to contest the elections in Mallawi, no one would vote for them because they are considered a losing card.

Although the NDP has fielded low-key candidates, it is believed that they stand a good chance of winning in view of the absence of opposition parties except the Wafd. One of the NDP candidates, Hussein Esheeri, has been in parliament for 17 years.

Independents believe that the time is ripe for a change. "They [NDP candidates] stood with folded arms when terrorism was eating up Mallawi's revenue," said independent candidate Saber Abdel-Hakim, a lawyer. "They failed to address other chronic problems such as the need for a sewage system, improving the ever-deteriorating health care facilities and dealing with unemployment, which has become epidemic. They did not even submit a single question to the interior minister about the escalating violence and harsh security measures, and none of them have made any attempt to reduce the hours of curfew," he argued.

Abdel-Hakim's platform highlights the importance of compensating farmers who have had their sugarcane fields, the favourite hiding place for militants, razed by the security forces. "Many of them could not repay their bank loans after they lost their sugarcane harvest," he said.

Strangely enough, Abdel-Hakim has suggested that the remaining sugarcane should be destroyed, thus bringing terrorist attacks to an end, provided each farmer is paid LE4,000 for each fedan of sugarcane lost. "This will cost the government only LE1 million but will mark the end of terrorism," he said.

Wagih Anwar, the Coptic candidate, also underlined the need for change and said that unemployment was behind many of Mallawi's problems. "There are 25,000 unemployed young men in a city that does not include a single factory," he said.

Under the tight security measures in force, all marches and demonstrations by candidates' supporters are banned. The candidates themselves believe they are running a risk by campaigning in this volatile situation.

"The circumstances are different this time because of terrorism and the security measures," said NDP candidate Hussein Eshiri. "We are running a big risk if we try to reach Mallawi's troubled neighbouring villages. At the same time, I cannot invite the heads of the influential families to meet me outside their villages."

Family and provincial loyalties are believed to be a major factor that will determine the outcome of the elections here.

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