Egypt held it’s parliamentary elections earlier today. Here’s a great overview of what it’s all about and what’s at stake. Here is another list of resources.
They marked a huge improvement over the last parliamentary elections, with almost no instances of violence. It’s a step, but still a leap away from real elections. Here’s a Christian Science Monitor article relating the event.
CAIRO, EGYPT ???????? Egypt, with its restrictions on free speech and organization, remains a long way from being a democracy. But the government made good on its promises Wednesday to open up its political system.
Unlike Egypt’s last parliamentary elections in 2000, when voters for rivals of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) were beaten by the police and NDP thugs, physically restrained from entering polling booths and hundreds of opposition activists were arrested, there were few if any such incidents on Wednesday. But turnout was low, underscoring the fact that most Egyptians don’t yet see a strong connection between voting and improving their lives.
In polling stations across Cairo, citizens had relatively unimpeded access to voting booths, and Egyptian political analysts projected that opposition groups, led by the officially banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, would almost certainly expand their paltry share of 12 percent of seats in the 454 member parliament.
Goma al-Durgadi says the vote has gone so well that it’s making him nervous. The Muslim Brotherhood poll watcher in Cairo’s Dokki district looks around as voters and officials bustle about and journalists and observers come and go with nary a glance at their papers, let alone outright harassment, from security officials.
“The difference is night and day – I can’t believe it,” he says, cracking a grin. “Maybe the NDP has something nasty in store for later.”
Dokki this year, as five years ago, featured a showdown between a senior leader of the Brotherhood and the NDP incumbent Amal Osman, an aging former senior government minister. Defeat for the NDP would be a major embarrassment, but Mr. Durgadi just scratches his head when asked if he has any complaints.
“We’re completely amazed,” he says.
The Muslim Brotherhood, banned but running its candidates as independents, looks like it will have a good showing. Opposition groups have also presented a united front — for the most part — in order to help break the NDP’s hold on power. It’s called the United National Front for Change, and it combines most of the opposition groups except for Ayman Nour’s al-Ghad party. Nour, if you’ll remember, was the runner up in the presidential election, and the reason for not participating in the alliance is the long-running dispute between him and the leadership of the other large opposition group, the Wafd Party. Given the better conduct of these elections, it is possible that more anti-regime oppositionists from both these groups and the Muslim Brotherhood will gain a larger degree of seats.
The story for Mubarak’s NDP isn’t as simple as one might assume, and the party certainly isn’t united. Recall the last parliamentary elections, in which many of the hardliners were ejected from the party in hopes of getting new candidates in. Those ejected veterans ended up running and winning anyhow, leaving the NDP with just over 30% of the vote. In the end, they had to incorporate these members back into the party. Sandmonkey has an excellent post on this, and how it is coming into play once again as Mubarak is trying to reshape the face of the party to look younger and more reformist, thus paving the way for his son to take office.
While it was unrealistic to even think that it would be possible to capture the presidency in September, even if those elections had been completely free and fair and transparent, parliamentary elections are the perfect way to get a foothold into power. If they do indeed get their seats, then we will probably see the pace of political reform swiften under opposition and eventually public pressure.