IHT/DSE: NDP wants to exclude independents from elections

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: July 13, 2006

Muslim Brotherhood protests, claiming move directed at Islamists

CAIRO: In a review of government-proposed constitutional amendments, National Democratic Party (NDP) upper house of parliament members suggested that election candidacy be restricted to official party members, consequently excluding independents.
“There is no place for independents on the Egyptian political arena,” one NDP member was quoted as saying. In Tuesday’s session, ruling party members debated the proposed amendment in a “heated manner,” as described by the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, and tempers flared as Muslim Brotherhood parliament members deemed the suggested amendment a move to crush the prominent Islamic group.
Mustapha Bakri, opposition leader and editor-at-large of Al-Osbou newspaper, supported the Brotherhood, saying that such amendments only aim at banning the Muslim Brotherhood from parliament.
Following the session, the group’s guidance office issued a statement to the press condemning the proposed amendment, saying it creates “an obstacle” in the path of the Brotherhood. “There is a strong wave among the party of the majority [NDP] to block the Muslim Brotherhood’s path to parliament.”
In their statement, Hussein Mohammed Ibrahim, Brotherhood representative in parliament, commented, “The majority party representative is trying to overthrow the Egyptian constitution … they are trying to tailor a law that prevents the Muslim Brotherhood from executive elections, and this in itself is a clear constitutional violation.”
The suggested amendment comes less than a week after the Muslim Brotherhood guidance office officially announced their intention to run for upcoming Shura Council (lower house of parliament) elections in April.
“We have a principal. It is that we would run for all elections, on every level, including the upcoming Shura Council elections,” Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the group’s supreme guide, told the press last week, adding that the group would not be distracted by “the expected retort from Egypt’s security.”
Akef’s statement was coupled with strong criticism of the government’s behavior toward Islamic activists, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood, especially during elections, where their members are systematically harassed and targeted, claims the group.
Last year, after violence-marred elections, the group (whose members ran as independents) won 88 seats out of the parliament’s 454 seats - an unprecedented level of success, making them the largest opposition bloc in the house, and reflecting the extent of their popularity.
The Islamic group’s presence in parliament ever since has spelled trouble for NDP members during regular parliament sessions, in which they have called the ruling party “corrupt” and focused on hot issues such as the Emergency Law, prisoners of conscience, the NDP’s wavering reform plan and police violence in throttling opposition and press freedom.

Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2241