Egypt was holding a parliamentary election yesterday widely expected to deal a setback to the government’s main rival, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood is targeting 30 percent of the lower house where it won a fifth of seats in 2005 — its best result — but analysts say the government wants to squeeze its most vocal critic out of parliament before a presidential vote next year.
The election in which 508 seats are at stake, including 64 reserved for women, may offer a foretaste of how the government conducts the crucial presidential election.
PHOTO: AFP
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 82, in power since 1981, has not said if he would run again. After he had gall-bladder surgery in March, speculation grew that he might step down.
If he does so, many Egyptians see a likely successor in his 46-year-old son Gamal, the ruling National Democratic Party’s (NDP) policy chief. Gamal’s allies include business leaders seeking further economic liberalization, resisted by the NDP’s statist old guard.
Analysts say the next president will be a NDP stalwart who would preserve a peace treaty with Israel and close ties with Washington that have ensured billions of dollars in US aid.
With the outcome of yesterday’s vote in little doubt, the authorities may face a sterner challenge from a workforce frustrated with low pay and food inflation now at 22 percent. Several union protests have turned violent in recent years.
The NDP and the Brotherhood have swapped accusations of intimidation and violence, said to have included kidnappings and fights between rival groups using machetes, chains and knives.
Four people have been killed and 30 wounded in electoral violence, according to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. Fourteen people were killed -during the 2005 poll.
The NDP is fielding far more candidates than there are seats available in an effort to crowd out the Brotherhood.
The Islamist movement skirts a ban on religious parties by running candidates as independents and has carved out a broad grass-roots following by offering health and social services.
Despite its substantial presence, it had scant influence on legislation during parliament’s last five-year term and has made no gains in municipal or upper house elections since 2005.
Brotherhood leaders say it would be perilous to push it out of mainstream politics as this would play into the hands of more radical Islamists bent on overthrowing the government by force.
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