Egypt election to return NDP
Source: Agencies |
December 6, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EGYPT held runoff parliamentary elections yesterday that are certain to hand President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party victory after the two main opposition groups decided to boycott the vote in protest over alleged fraud in the first round.
With a large-scale crackdown that included large-scale arrests, Egypt's ruling establishment appeared determined to purge the largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, from the next legislature.
The aim seems to be to ensure the Brotherhood cannot use parliament as a platform for dissent amid uncertainty over the country's future and in the lead-up to next year's crucial presidential elections.
Both the Brotherhood and the other key opposition group, the liberal Wafd party, boycotted yesterday's runoffs. As a result, most of the contests now pit rival candidates from Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) against each other, ensuring a parliament almost entirely made up of the ruling party, with a few seats going to independents and smaller parties.
"NDP versus NDP," said the headline in the Wafd party's newspaper.
The Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized opposition group, controlled a fifth of the outgoing parliament, but failed to win a single seat in the November 28 first round. Twenty-seven of its candidates had been slated to contest the runoffs.
The Brotherhood campaigns under the slogan "Islam is the solution" and promotes the creation of a more Islamic society. It also talks of fighting corruption and heavy bureaucracy and of ending the 30-year emergency law that gives authorities free rein to confront opponents.
The small Wafd party won two seats last week, but the decision to boycott yesterday's balloting led to divisions within the party. Scuffles broke out last week outside the party's Cairo headquarters in a standoff between rival camps for and against the boycott.
With a large-scale crackdown that included large-scale arrests, Egypt's ruling establishment appeared determined to purge the largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, from the next legislature.
The aim seems to be to ensure the Brotherhood cannot use parliament as a platform for dissent amid uncertainty over the country's future and in the lead-up to next year's crucial presidential elections.
Both the Brotherhood and the other key opposition group, the liberal Wafd party, boycotted yesterday's runoffs. As a result, most of the contests now pit rival candidates from Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) against each other, ensuring a parliament almost entirely made up of the ruling party, with a few seats going to independents and smaller parties.
"NDP versus NDP," said the headline in the Wafd party's newspaper.
The Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized opposition group, controlled a fifth of the outgoing parliament, but failed to win a single seat in the November 28 first round. Twenty-seven of its candidates had been slated to contest the runoffs.
The Brotherhood campaigns under the slogan "Islam is the solution" and promotes the creation of a more Islamic society. It also talks of fighting corruption and heavy bureaucracy and of ending the 30-year emergency law that gives authorities free rein to confront opponents.
The small Wafd party won two seats last week, but the decision to boycott yesterday's balloting led to divisions within the party. Scuffles broke out last week outside the party's Cairo headquarters in a standoff between rival camps for and against the boycott.
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