With the announcement of the Egyptian Elections Authority, the door to candidacy for the Senate (formerly the Shura) was opened, after it was reinstated again, and talked about the seriousness and fairness of these elections, and the feasibility of the opposition to engage with it and participate in it in the subsequent Parliament elections.
During a press conference last Saturday, the head of the National Electoral Commission, Counselor Lasheen Ibrahim, announced that the elections for the Senate would be held on August 11 and 12, and would start accepting candidacy applications to contest her next Saturday, for a period of one week.
According to the announcement, on August 9 and 10, the Egyptians abroad will vote, and on September 6 and 7, next year for the run-off for them, while the run-off will take place at home on September 8 and 9, and the final election results will be announced no later than September 16 / September.
And the local media quoted deputies in the current parliament - whose term is nearing completion - that the upcoming elections for the parliament that represents the first chamber of parliament will take place in October, knowing that the parliament had approved last month amendments to its election law that include conducting it with absolute closed lists By 50% and the other half for individual seats.
False system
Undersecretary of the Foreign Relations Committee in the former parliament, Gamal Heshmat, does not expect the Egyptians to participate in elections organized by "a system that has lied in all of its promises, does not allow the word opposition, and has made constitutional amendments that allow its president to remain until 2032, and it has become worse than he passed through the rule of Egypt," as he put it.
Heshmat believes in his talk to Al-Jazeera Net that the most effective option is to boycott the elections and not interact with them in a way that gives them any legitimacy, as the regime that will visit these elections is keen to portray any presence as a sign of confidence in the Sisi person.
The former parliamentarian stresses that the Sisi regime "will only allow those who have a shameful history or shameful positions to override security and intelligence filters, and no one will be able to form an opposition front within a military system that deals with opponents with arrest, torture and murder."
Hashmat considers that the optimal interaction with this "electoral representation, is to expose the parliament's existing shame role in muzzling mouths, restricting freedoms, selling land, wasting wealth, protecting prostitutes, separating the people, and tearing up the nation's unity by siding with one group rather than others."
Logical choice
As for the leader of the Revolution Tomorrow Party, Ayman Nour, he does not expect basic elections to be held, in addition to expecting their integrity or not, and believes that the political climate in which Egypt lives lacks the minimum conditions for holding these elections, and therefore dealing with it is not imagined that it should be through My participation or boycott options.
The logical option - from Nour's point of view - is to "expose the process before its start, and to ensure that these elections will not be better than its predecessors that took place after the military coup," stressing that its real goal is to "meet the intelligence services needs to provide elements of it within the government And the legislative system, "according to his speech to Al-Jazeera Net.
Although Nour does not support the participation of any of Sisi's opponents "in this farce, so that they are not stigmatized to be involved in completing a false form, the Egyptians will not interact with him," but he at the same time affirms that he does not accept the betrayal of anyone who sees participation in these elections.
Participation is a crime
In turn, the head of the political bureau of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, Amr Adel, believes that merely talking about elections in Egypt is a "crime against the Egyptian people", as he sees that there is no room for any real elections, starting from the elections of school students to the largest elections.
Adel believes that dealing with these elections is "worse than drug use", and talking about boycotting them is not in order, because "boycotting is a protest position against a political field tainted by corruption, but in Egypt there is basically no political field in order to be boycotted."
"The situation in Egypt transcends corruption, and Egyptian society is completely deprived of any political action," he added, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net. "Therefore, it is more beneficial for the media and public opinion makers to invest their time in creating truly revolutionary paths, instead of being preoccupied with the political process."
Likewise, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Secretary of External Relations of the Freedom and Justice Party, Mohamed Sudan, believes that “democracy, parliamentary and legislative life in Egypt are dead since the military coup,” and the affairs of the state are managed through military intelligence without fairness, transparency, or real elections.
Sudan asserts in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that the position of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters is consistent in terms of "not participating in this farce", considering that participation in it is "a great crime that history will record."
He stressed that it will not be disclosed in any case the extent of real participation in these elections to which citizens will drive a market, pointing out that the Egyptian media cameras will transmit "the scenes of hypocrites, wages, workers and defeated employees on their matter", he said.
Sharing is better
In return, the media advisor of the Egyptian Building and Development Party, Khaled al-Sharif, called on the Egyptian opposition at home and abroad to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and take advantage of Turkey's political experience, which he said had depended on facing coups with democracy and participating in the elections.
In press statements, the leader of the party, which was dissolved by the Egyptian authorities nearly a month and a half ago, stressed that "the revolutionary path did not achieve anything for the opposition, but rather expanded the barrier of fear", which necessitates the pursuit of other paths and options, which he believes include the option to participate in the upcoming elections, to " Penetration of the barrier of isolation and exclusion by the Sisi regime. "
"We have the right to practice politics and we must take it away, and the road will not be paved with roses, but rather it will be full of obstacles that the Sisi regime will place. The demolition of the wall of fear, the descent into the streets, and friction with the masses will be an opportunity to return to the political scene," he added.
Al-Sharif's call for the participation of Islamists in the elections comes amid the assertion of the leaders of the Islamic Group that it is considering establishing a new party after the dissolution of the Construction and Development Party.
This also comes with news circulating on the communication sites about the request of the security services from some opposition Islamic parties to participate in the upcoming elections and a gradual return to political life.
But sources related to the leaders of those parties confirmed to Al-Jazeera Net that some leaders rejected the offer, stressing that participation is the sole aim of giving more legitimacy to the system and silencing the remaining voices demanding real, not formal, reform.
After the decision to dissolve the Building and Development Party, and
as a member of the party's voting bloc (3,6 million electoral votes), I ask the bloc's figures to form a new political party that
avoids the individual mistakes that caused the solution.
He also recommended consulting on the name of the new party and its political program on a page called
(the party's voting bloc).
- Aboud Al-Zumar (@aboudalzumar) June 19, 2020