The reassurances set forth by major figures of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in Egypt are not sufficient to remove the doubts shed by opposition forces on the impartiality of the parliamentary elections scheduled on the 28th of this month. Indeed, it is not by promises alone that elections are held in a sound atmosphere, their results expressing the will of voters. The truth is that similar reassurances were issued by perhaps the same people before every elections that were held in the past, and then things happened as they did and the NDP won the overwhelming majority of votes and took hold of parliament seats, responding to the complaints of opposition candidates and denouncing their “claims” of the elections having been rigged, the results falsified or the voters influenced. And if the NDP, along with some opposition forces, has rejected international supervision of the elections, every measure aimed at limiting the monitoring of civil society organizations or placing restrictions on the media for covering the events of the elections raises questions about their soundness. Similarly, increasing pressure on candidates from the opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood or independents, as well as giving NDP candidates vast spaces to move among people and to hold conferences and meetings amid popular gatherings, makes equal opportunity among candidates a mere slogan that has no place in reality. It is no secret that Egypt's government and its ruling party, as well as some opposition parties, do not want repeated the success of the Muslim Brotherhood in obtaining a substantial portion of parliament seats, as took place in the previous election which ended with the Brotherhood winning 88 seats. Yet this should not lead to undermining the idea of the elections itself or be a pretext for tampering with them. Indeed, Egyptian political parties, which suffer from many ills and problems, were supposed to look for the reasons behind the success of the Brotherhood in the previous elections and to work on achieving the same success for themselves, without this involving ways of changing the will of voters or obstructing candidates. Indeed, the elections will be held without complete judicial supervision over all of its phases, as has been the case for past elections, which places on the government and the ruling party the responsibility of dispelling the fears of opposition forces from interference in favor of NDP candidates or from making use of the state's capabilities to support them, while depriving opposition candidates of their rights to reach the voting public or preventing voters from reaching electoral committees if it appears that they are not voting for the NDP. Certainly the government was hoping that the Brotherhood would boycott the parliamentary elections, but the group considered that mere participation would reap it benefits, the simplest being the possibility of interacting with the public, as well as of exposing the government's methods of falsification and its intentions, if interferences are detected that affect the results of the elections. As for the Wafd Party, which has threatened several times to boycott the elections if it detects pressures on its candidates or privileges obtained by NDP candidates at the expense of the other candidates, it is certain that it will participate in the elections and that it is using the boycott card to pressure the government, despite the fact that the elections should be held without pressures from this or that side. It is the elections game in Egypt, where the ruling party makes sure to have opposition forces except for the Brotherhood participate in putting forward candidates without giving such forces the opportunity to truly compete, thus finding itself confronting Muslim Brotherhood candidates, whom it had wished not to see run as candidates in the first place. Yesterday saw the start of candidacies, the period for accepting the applications of those ambitioning to reach seats in parliament. Today, press headlines will most certainly feature news of complaints about obstacles that prevented some from presenting applications or from obtaining identification documents from the appropriate state institutions. It is the beginning of the game of which all know who the winner will be. Noteworthy is the fact that the Wafd, Tagammu and Nasserist parties, in addition to the Muslim Brotherhood, are facing internal opposition against participating in the elections, and that the occurrence of falsification in the elections will therefore strengthen the radical wings within these parties, as well as greatly weaken the positions of those who believed the government's words and decided to participate. Then the NDP will find no one to compete against but the radicals.
