CAIRO: As the November parliamentary elections draw near, former National Democratic Party members have begun forming new political parties and some are running as “independent” candidates. As of October 13, nearly 60 former NDP officials have registered to run for parliament. The reemergence of regime politicians poses a particularly serious challenge to revolutionary groups in Upper Egypt where the patronage networks that allowed the NDP to dominate elections remain intact and revolutionary groups are still too weak and underfunded to run strong campaigns. Unfortunately, the machinations of former NDP members are being upstaged by the October 9 clashes at Maspero in Cairo between protesters and the military. While political activists and politicians are decrying military violence and sectarianism, in Upper Egypt, the January 25 revolution is being quietly undermined in a less dramatic but equally destructive fashion. A flash point for this growing conflict is the Qena Governate. On Wednesday, October 5 in the city of Nag Hammadi, regime stalwarts gathered in an unprecedented conference organized by the Citizens Party and the Egyptian Freedom Party. Both parties are lead by former NDP officials. Last October 5's meeting—titled “Beware of Upper Egypt's Anger–was organized within twenty-four hours of a declaration by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf in support of enacting “Treason Laws.” These laws could be used to bar former NDP members from running for office. Sharaf's support for the Treason Laws may be mere political maneuvering. Only the SCAF can enact legislation and Sharaf himself could be prosecuted under the law as a former member of the NDP's Policy Secretariat. On October 5, a spokesperson for the Freedom Party, Mahmoud Nafady, threatened violence if former NDP politicians are prevented from running for office: “If Treason Law is activated I'm afraid that Upper Egypt's big families will forcibly close voting stations and prevent family members from running in elections, which would probably result in gunfights and extreme violence,” said Nafaday. The Treason Laws were first enacted after the 1952 ouster of the Egyptian Monarchy. Gamal Abdel Nasser's government implemented the Laws to ban monarchists from political life for up to five years. Since the January overthrow of the Hosni Mubarak government, few NDP members have faced criminal prosecution. The party disbanded last January and its members have been keeping a low profile. Nafady's October 5 statement took many by surprise. Zeinab Abul-Magd, a professor of History at the American University in Cairo who is an expert on Upper Egypt told Bikyamasr.com “they [former NDP members] have been marginalized since the revolution, the conference happened so quickly and was completely unexpected. Abul-Magd, doubts that former regime members would organize such a conference, which brought together leaders from all of Upper Egypt as far as the Red Sea, without permission from the SCAF. “It was staged and coordinated with the military council,” Abul-Magd, asserted. “The only explanation is that the SCAF is playing with us … soon the SCAF will say we cannot apply [the Treason Laws] because it will cause conflict and social unrest.” The fate of the Treason Laws is uncertain. On October 11, the Cabinet's Legislative Committee renamed the Treason Laws the “Law on Corrupting Political Life, ” and the SCAF has yet to issue a decision on their implementation. Meanwhile, local activists in Qena are takings matters into their own hands. The January 25 Youth Coalition, an activist group based in Qena, is noisily working to ban former NDP members from running for office, and publishes a “black-list” of local NDP-connected politicians on its Facebook page. The coalition has also been organizing multiple protests calling for the implementation of Treason Laws. On Monday, members of the coalition marched through the streets of Nag Hammadi denouncing members of the Freedom Party and calling on the government to blacklist former NDP members. Activists fear that without a strong intervention by the government, local elections will be impossible to contest. This view is shared by Nadeem Mansour, Executive Director at the Cairo based Center for Economic and Social Rights, a leading human rights NGO that aims to safeguard Egypt's democratic transition. “Former NDP members are still strong and will win elections, since the NDP was not a party, but a networks of power by local elites,” Mansour told Bikyamasr.com. “Since new political actors are weak and not well developed, there is a good chance for Egyptian authoritarianism to sustain itself,” he added. Dismantling a patronage system is not an easy task and Egyptians are divided about the best approach. Although many activists support the Treason Laws, some human rights professionals, including Mansour, are wary of setting a dangerous precedent. “Of course political actors in Egypt are weak and trying to use laws to help with that. There is no actor or group of actors strong enough to put the NDP out of the equation … but, the law is problematic … In General, Treason Laws are used to maintain authoritarianism.” Abul Maged disagrees, “Human Rights people are always very careful about laws…they respect human rights so much that they sacrifice other things. To watch out for human rights of former NDP people who ruined our lives for the past 30 years is unnecessary.” Ultimately the decision is in the hands of the SCAF, which has little incentive to ban local elites from running for office. And although activists disagree about how to structure the upcoming elections, it is clear that without drastic intervention, the NDP and its patronage networks will remain a serious presence in the upcoming parliament. BM
