CAIRO - Egypt's Islamists (the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the ultra-conservative Salafist Al-Nour Party) have managed to snatch 60 per cent of the seats for political parties in the first round of the parliamentary polls that were held on 28 and 29 November. This has opened the way for national fears of an almost total Islamist takeover, to the extreme frustration of the nation's liberals, secularists, and neophyte revolutionary movements. The Freedom and Justice Party has won 40 per cent of the vote in the first round of the elections (the first since the ousting of long-serving dictator Hosni Mubarak), while the new Al-Nour Party has come second with 20 per cent of the vote. This has left the liberal-secular Egyptian Bloc lagging behind with only 15 per cent of the vote and Al-Wafd Party (one of the country's oldest political parties) with a mere 5 per cent. "These results do not surprise me at all," said Sameh Fawzi, a leading political analyst in commenting on the results of the first round of the elections. "While the liberals are happy talking about general issues like freedom and democracy, the Islamists are on the ground offering people all types of services," he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. One political science professor, Mona Makram Ebeid, has been constantly encouraging the liberals and secularists to learn their lesson from the Islamists. "I always ask them to do what the Islamists do," Ebeid said. "They need to go to the ordinary citizens everywhere and tell them that they are aware of their problems and will take action to solve them." It seems that it's too late for the liberals and the new revolutionary movements to do this now, some observers say. With the second round of the elections to be held within two weeks, these movements do not have many cards in their hands left to play, they add. The success of the Islamists in the first round of the elections has sent waves of disappointment across revolutionary circles, sparking increasing speculation about the brand of thought these Islamists harbour on issues like democracy. Having sacrificed themselves to kick out Mubarak ��" with some of them being killed and many more seriously injured ��" the revolutionaries have emerged almost empty-handed from the first round of the polls. Still sticking strongly to their demand to purge Egypt of Mubarak's loyalists and mindset and sleeping alfresco in Tahrir Square, defying the cold nights of a Cairo winter, the revolutionaries seem to have been eclipsed by the national drive for ‘stability'. But this is pitting the Islamists against the revolutionaries and liberals, each of whom think they are worthier of leading Egypt in the future. "Where have you been since we on our own started challenging Mubarak and his policemen in 2005?" George Ishaq, the founder of the protest Kefaya (Enough) movement asked Nadir Bakar, the spokesman of Al-Nour Party, during a debate on the Arabiya satellite channel. "We were suffering in jail," Bakar retorted. Only four independent candidates have won so far in the first round of the elections, while 98 other candidates will have to wait for the results of an election rerun Monday and on Tuesday. But whether the liberals and the revolutionaries will be able to carve a bigger niche for themselves in Parliament will depend on their campaigning skills in the days to come, analysts say. "It will take Egyptians a long time to put in place a parliament that can express the thoughts of a new generation as yet incapable of competing against its adversaries," wrote Akram Al-Qassas in his column on the Arabic-language news portal Youm7.
