Meeting to unify Egypt's secular political parties postponed

A meeting aimed at forging an electoral alliance among Egypt's non-Islamist political parties was postponed

Officials from the liberal Wafd party said on Wednesday that a meeting aimed at unifying Egypt's secular political forces into a single electoral coalition had been postponed.
Bahaa Abu Shoka, Wafd's secretary general, told parliamentary reporters thata meeting scheduled for Tuesday night was postponed until a committee tasked with forging an "electoral consensus document" finishes its job.
Abu Shoka said political parties were informed ahead of the meeting that it would be postponed "because a document the meeting was supposed to discuss was not finalised."
Instead, said Abu Shoka, a committee formed at the end of a meeting held last Saturday met on Tuesday to draft the document. "Once this document is finalised, it will be sent to political parties which attended Saturday's meeting for review," said Abu Shoka.
He indicated that a number of political analysts are in the process of drafting the required document which will act as an electoral platform for political parties which agreed to join the proposed single electoral coalition among Egypt's secular political forces.
Agreeing, Amin Radi, deputy chairman of the liberal Congress party, told Ahram Online that Wafd officials telephoned the chairmen of political parties on Tuesday afternoon, informing them that the meeting would be postponed until "the required document" is drafted.
"This is the reason why the meeting was not held on Tuesday as planned although political parties which attended the coalition's first meeting on Saturday were highly anxious to complete their meetings on Tuesday," said Radi.
Egypt's secular political forces held their first meeting on Saturday after President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi had advised them to unite into one electoral coalition capable of winning the majority of seats in the country's upcoming parliamentary polls, scheduled to be held in two rounds between 21 March and 7 May.
The meeting on Saturday, which was attended by representatives from 19 non-Islamist political parties and four electoral coalitions, ended with the necessity of drafting "a consensus document" aimed outlining the objectives of the proposed national secular electoral alliance and the instruments necessary to turn it into a reality on the ground.
As a result, said Abu Shoka, three committees were formed. The first, tasked with drafting the platform document,included Al-Ahram political analyst Amr El-Shobaki, former minister of social solidarity Ahmed El-Boraie, independent political analyst Samir Ghattas, and spokesperson for the leftist Tagammu party Nabil Zaki.
Abu Shoka said another committee led by Mohamed Sami, chairman of the leftist Karama party, would be responsible for working on the criteria upon which candidates of the national list will be selected. A third committee, led by chairman of the lawyers syndicate Sameh Ashour, was also formed to take charge of putting together the final lists of candidates.
Abu Shoka expressed hopes that the "consensus document" will help convince more secular political forces to join the coalition.
"We hope other secular political forces and high-profile public figures such as former prime minister Kamal El-Ganzouri and political activist Abdel-Gelil Mostafa will join the proposed coalition in the end, especially after they find that the ‘consensus document' reflects supreme national objectives," said Abu Shoka.
El-Ganzouri and Mostafa are currently involved in preparing separate "national lists" of candidates for the coming parliamentary polls. El-Ganzouri's list gained support from old guard forces, especially those affiliated with former president Hosni Mubarak's defunct National Democratic Party (NDP). Mostafa, on the other hand, has struck a chord with most revolutionary leftist and liberal forces which are antagonistic to the former regimes of Hosni Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Most revolutionary forces said they cannot join a coalition with Mubarak regime remnants. In reaction, the Egyptian Front, which many accuse of becoming a cover for Mubarak diehards, railed at revolutionary forces, known as the Democratic Current, accusing them of pursuing an extremist liberal agenda.
Medhat El-Zahed, deputy chairman of the leftist Popular Current, told Ahram Online that "we and the Mubarak regime's symbols cannot be on one electoral board, but we could have second thoughts on joining Wafd's proposed national lists if the Mubarak officials were excluded."
Amr Hashem Rabie, an Al-Ahram political analyst, said "bringing all non-Islamist political forces into one electoral coalition" would turn the ballot into a "referendum."
"The ballot means that citizens should see different lists of candidates with different ideologies to choose from, but unifying all secular forces into one list will make the vote like a referendum and a foregone conclusion," said Rabie.
Rabie believes that deep ideological differences among Mubarak regime remnants on one handand revolutionary forces one the other was the main reason behind postponing Tuesday's meeting at the Wafd party's headquarters.
"Al-Wafd is trying to find common ground between the two forces, but the deep rift between the two main forces makes this by no means an easy task," said Rabie.
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