Political Parties, Lists and things it would be nice to know about the Upcoming Egyptian Parliamentary Elections

Photo Credit Al Ahram online. Popular Socialist Alliance Street Party.

 Dear readers

A reader has made the excellent request that I try to assemble information about all parties and lists in one page. This page will be a running assessment of the state of political life in Egypt as the parliamentary elections approach. I will try to update it as frequently as possible. This information may be available in one place at the Higher Elections Commission. However, it is all in Arabic. So I am creating a database from the Egyptian press. I am reading the English press, and my students the Arabic Press.

When will the elections be held?

Parliamentary elections  for the people's assembly are scheduled to start on November 28th, 2011. Following rounds of elections will be held on December 5th, and December 14th.

My students and I think that this system of having some governorates vote first, and then others follow is very problematic. Governorates in later elections will observe the results of the Cairo vote, and then change their votes accordingly. The outcomes of the earlier votes will affect the outcomes of the later votes.

The Shura Council Poll will being on January 29th, and end on March 11, 2012. 

How many seats are up for grabs? 

There are 498 seats in the People's Assembly which will be decided by election. Another 10 seats will be appointed, making the total number of seats in the People's Assembly 508.

Shura Council will have 180 elected seats, and 90 presidentially appointed seats, for a total of 270 seats in the upper house.One question is who will appoint the 90 seats in the absence of a President in Egypt.

How do the election stages work? 

The first stage of elections will be held between November 28th and the 5th of December. It includes Egypt's most popular governerates, Cairo and Alexandria, as well as Fayoum, Port Said, Damietta, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Assiut, Luxor and the Red Sea.

How many political parties are there in Egypt?

As many as 55 political parties, (as of November 14, 2011) most of which were formed after the January 25th Revolution, will compete in the parliamentary elections.

How many electoral districts are there in Egypt? 

There are 46 electoral districts covered by the party list system, and 83 districts covered by the individual candidacy system. Source: Gamal Assam El Din, "Egypt's Opposition Slams Proposed Electoral Changes," Ahram Online, September 26, 2011.

How many candidates have registered? 

Over 15,000 candidates have registered (As of October 29, 2011). Over 8600 have registered as independents. 6600 have registered for the People's Assembly. More than 2000 have registered for the Shura Council.

What are the main Alliances?

There are four main electoral blocs, which span the political spectrum. Although Egypt does have a left, I believe it is inaccurate, in my view, to say it has a "right," as that concept is understood in Europe. It has a secular side and a more fundamentalist religious side.

Left/Liberal

Egyptian Bloc: Free Egyptians (Free Enterprise), Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Tagmmu Party (old school leftist)
The Revolution Continues: Socialist Popular Alliance Party, Egyptian Socialist Party, Egypt Freedom (Amr Hamzawy), Equality and Development, Egyptian Current, Revolution Youth Coalition

Right/Religious

Democratic Alliance: (12 parties) Muslim Brotherhood, Ghad Party, Al-Karama (Nasserist)
Islamist Alliance: Nour Party (Salafis), Asala, the Salafist Current, the Construction and Development Party (Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya)


What are some of the other parties in Egypt?


Overview of Political Parties from The Arabist.

Map of Egypt's Political Parties

Overview of Political Parties from the Carnegie Endowment.This is by Marina Ottaway, a respected academic with a lot of expertise on both Africa and the Middle East.

The Emerging Political Spectrum in Egypt

Here is information about parties I have gleaned from Newspapers.

Unity Party (Hossam Badrawy/NDP)
Wafd (liberal/NDP)

Egyptian Communist Party (not running/boycotting)
Egypt Above All Coalition (Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi)
El Adl (liberal/free enterprise)
Democratic Front Party (liberal)
Horreya Party (NDP cover)
Egyptian Citizen Party (NDP Cover)
National Egypt Party (NDP Cover)  (60 former NDP members)

Note: The High Administrative Court in Mansoura, Dakahlia governorate, has banned all members of the NDP from running for parliament. The General Electoral Committee in the governorate should reject the nomination papers of any candidate who was a member of NDP. It is not clear if the ruling will apply only in Dakhalia or across Egypt. According to Reuters, however, on November 15, 2011, Judge Magdy E-Agaty of the Higher Administrative Court has overturned the verdict. According to the Daily News Egypt, former NDP members have set up at least 6 parties. 

Will Expatriates be Allowed to Vote?

Maybe. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf held a meeting this weekend (November 10, 2011) with several cabinet members to discuss whether expatriates can vote. They may be allowed to vote in Egyptian embassies abroad.

Who Can Monitor Elections?

Only Egyptians can monitor elections. International election monitors will not be allowed. The Egyptian Council for Human Rights has received 7168 requests from NGOs to monitor elections.

What Kind of Electoral System will be Used?

The elections will combine a list system as well as a single winner system. One third of the seats will be based on a single winner system. Two thirds of the seats in the People's Assembly will be elected based on the closed list system. For more on the list system, read here. The Book of Lists.

The number of candidates on each party list differs. Voters will elect a fixed number of party based candidates depending on the voting district.

North Cairo will elect 10 party based deputies. Nasr City will elect eight. Cairo's four districts will return 36 MPs from the party list system.

The city is divided into nine districts which will produce 18 MPs from the single winner system. 

When Did Parties Gain Recognition? 
The Nour Party (Salafis) was founded in the coastal city of Alexandria. It won official recognition on June 12, 2011. The Islamist coalition could win as many as 30 percent of parliament's seats.

Okay, I will update this as time allows. ~WMB

Updated November 14, 2011 4:00 p.m.
Updated November 15, 2011 10:00 a.m.; 4:35 p.m.
Updated November 16, 2011 11;04 a.m. 

Sources
Al Masry Al Youm
Ahram Online
Al Ahram Weekly
Al Jazeera
New York Times
Washington Post
Interviews
AUC Today
Daily News Egypt
Carnegie Endowment

Interview with Abdel Ghaffr Shokr: Founder of Coalition of Popular Socialist Party Egypt

I first met Mr. Abdel Ghaffr Shokr at an AUC conference on the Revolution or Democratic Transformation. He impressed me, so I decided to interview him as part of my effort to interview leaders of emerging political parties. In my personal view, the Western media is placing excessive focus on Islamist parties, and insufficient focus on Center and Left parties in Egypt.

This interview was conducted on July 4, 2011. The interview was conducted in his party headquarters near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. The translation was conducted by John Ehab, a student of mine, and a journalist.

Start Interview

I am 75 years old. I was born in a village in the countryside, in Dakhalia. I attended Cairo University. I was in Literature, in the Department of History, in 1960. In 1965, I participated in the organization of socialist youth. I was the awareness secretary. I was the president of awareness in the whole socialist union (The Nasser Party). [Authors' note, that party was the NDP of the Nassr era.] I held that position from 1965 to 1969. In the 1960s, the youth organization had half a million members. Etihad Ishterraki, the Arab Socialist Union.


Q: What in your background made you a socialist?

I became a socialist due to a battle against a feudalist in Dakhalia. He was the biggest landowner. He was in the upper room of Parliament at that time. He was bad to the farmers. He owned around 46,000 acres. My dad had a struggle against him. Our family was persecuted because of this struggle. My father died of a heart attack in 1946. Because of this experience, I became committed against feudalism and capitalism. When I read, I became a socialist. When the coup of Nasser happened, I became a Nasserite. I was the President of Awareness in Egypt of ASU.

When Sadat took over in 71, I moved to the opposition. I was against Sadat;s economic policies and foreign policies. His economic policies favored the rich. In 1976, I helped found the Tagamoo party [Author's note: "Tagamoo" means gathering, or collection in Arabic]. This party was socialist. I became the secretary of awareness fro the party, and the Deputy of the General Secretary of the part (Khaled Mohadeen) . 


Skipping forward, in March 2011, I resigned from Tagamoo. I was indifferent to the General Secretary regarding his position about the Mubarak Regime. The GS (Rafat Said) was supporting Mubarak. Since 1990, Rafat Said had taken a position that was supportive of the regime. We were indifferent from then to now. There was not a chance to make new parties under Mubarak.

Q: Why did you not try to topple the leadership of Tagamoo?

I tried to withdraw the trust, but the council of the party voted "No."

Q: What party are you in now?

I am in the Party of the Coalition of Popular Socialists (Hezb el Tahalaf Shaaby Eshteraki). I am the representative of the founders. I am the coordinator of the founders. The party was founded on February 10, 2011, a few days before Mubarak stepped down. We had an announcement for all the leftists, that Egypt is in need of a new leftist party, a broad party.

In the January 25th Revolution, the leftists participated as individuals in the uprisings. [and groups within leadership?] because the Tagamoo party was conspiring with the regime.

The left needs a new party. We are different than Tagamoo. Our party will permit different platforms. The internal structure will be democratic. We will give the young people priority within the leadership. [Author's note, the interview was conducted at the party headquarters. There were no women present. There were a few young men present. One of the young men present was Bassam Satry, an author.]  We announced that we needed to establish the party. One the 14th of February, 100 people met and started the party.

Q: I know you have published your platform, but could you give me a sense of the big ideas of your party?

• We want a civil state.
• We believe in a reform of citizenship rights, and are opposed to discrimination on the basis of religion and ethnicity. 
• We support a parliamentary state. 
• We support a new constitution that would guarantee these values. This constitution will change the laws regarding parties, elections, syndicates and NGOs.
• We believe in social justice. We support a new structure for wages and salaries. We want a minimum wage for all, around 1200 LE ($200 dollars a month). The maximum wage would only be for the public sector. It would be 15 times the minimum wage. This figure should be linked to prices, and should adjust as prices adjust.
• Education and health should be free. These are the tools of social justice. The state claims that education is free, but there is private tutoring. We need to completely restructure education. 
• We support free (universal) health care. 
• We supported a graduated taxation system. 

Our constituency are workers, farmers, the middle class, small traders, owners of small and micro projects, women and young people.

Q: What does the party offer women?

The party offers women equality in obligations and rights. Women have the right to hold any office, including president. A lot of women are in the founding group. These include Doctor Fatma Kafagha of the UN, and Jehan Shaban. We need a grassroots party. We basically have similar ideas about women to the Tagamoo. The Tagamoo has some prominent women, including Farida Nagash, the Editor in Chief of Ahali Weekly Newspaper. She has raised good positions in her paper.

We are concentrating on winning the young people. Our platform includes the demands of the young people. Our problem is that the young people are not attracted to socialism today. We have a real problem to gain the young people.

Last Tuesday, we had a conference in a village in Dakhalia. 1000 people attended. We have not yet begun to organize the big cities. We are now focusing on personal contacts.

We objected to this rule for 5000 signatures to form a new party. We will meet the rule. We will get the signatures by the end of July. However, the publication requirement is unfair. It could cost at least 100,000 dollars (1/2 million LE) to meet this requirement. Although now, the SCAF is saying it will waive the signature requirement.

So, there is a law that out of Egypt's 29 governorates, the party must get at least 300 signatures from 10 of the 29 governarates. This is a way to eliminate small parties, and it is not democratic. In terms of our strategy, we will focus on the Parliament and local offices. We are not planning to organize around the Presidential election. Aboul Ezzi Harriri has said he may run for president. He is popular. It is not clear exactly when the parliamentary elections will be held. It sounds like they will be held in September, but the date has not been set. It is my guess that the parliamentary elections will be held in late September. The Presidential elections, I think, will be held in the New Year, in the Spring of 2012.

The SCAF has said the new Constitution will take six months. We do not support the parliament writing the Constitution. It would be better to have a constitutional convention elected by the people. The Constitutional Convention should represent political parties and all social segments of society.

I believe that the important leftist parties are

The Coalition (Ghaffr Shokr's party)
Democratic Labor
Egyptian Socialist Party
Tagamoo
Communist Party

End Interview. WMB

An Evening at the Souk

Article first published at Blogcritics. Photo of Khan al Kallili bazaar by Leo LaPorte.

Some of everyday politics is to be found in the market. Today was my day off. I went to have a dinner at an expatriate restaurant at the local market with a university colleague. The market, or souk, is the heartbeat of the community. If politics are going smoothly, as they are today, all the shops are open well into the evening. The market bustles. Men outdoors gather around a large screen TV to watch the latest soccer match. Women and children buy groceries and pick through the gorgeous vegetables displayed on the sidewalk. Music plays. Young women pass by in hijab, tight jeans and high heels, modest, yet provocative at the same time. My colleague and I walked to a small stand, and inhale one of the most delicious glasses of lemonade I have ever drunk. "Ishta" I say, with a thumbs up sign."Shukran." Delicious, thanks. The proprietor smiles broadly.

I did not see any tanks on the way to the souk, but inside the souk was a large truck with an open canvas back filled with soldiers in camoflauge. On the whole, I suppose their presence represents security, but in a country that is actually ruled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, their presence also highlights the absence of democracy, and the utter absence of the pro-Mubarak police forces.

I remember the worst days of the Egyptian Revolution, probably February 2nd and 3rd, when I huddled in a Sudanese neighbor's house with my three children. My children loved this tense time, playing with Samira and Hamid's five children, ranging in ages from 12 to 6 months. The parents hunched worriedly around BBC World, trying to determine what was going on in this, our host country. The next day, I moved my children to Kenya, where they remain today, to their grandma and a bit of safety.

A bit over a month ago it was then. A phone call was impossible, and the souk, which today seemed so vibrant, was nearly closed, with only a few bread stores open, and lines stretching around the block for provisions. My thoughts lie with the Libyans who much be experiencing terrible food shortages. At the end of the evening, my taxi driver, Emad Ghoneem, takes me to a neighbouring area called Tagamoo. We pay some money inside of a nondescript looking corner store, and get back into the taxi to wait. The proprieter George brings me the desired contraband, a bottle of white wine. I return to my beautiful apartment, and pour the much anticipated glass of wine.  It is dry, and delicious, but leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. Like the Egyptian Revolution, it has not yet matured