http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203405504576600822072136368.html
SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
Egyptians Threaten Ballot Boycott
Coalition Dominated by Muslim Brotherhood Demands Legal Shift to Keep Members of Old Regime From Inching Back
By MATT BRADLEY
CAIRO--Egypt's largest political bloc, led by the party of the Muslim Brotherhood, has threatened to boycott elections in November if the ruling military doesn't give in to their effort to sideline politicians from the former regime.
A boycott could compromise the legitimacy of Nov. 28 parliamentary polls expected to be the first free and fair elections in Egyptian history.
A statement on the website of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the Democratic Alliance coalition of 37 political parties will decide in a meeting on Sunday whether to withdraw from the election.
The coalition wants the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, to alter election laws so that votes for political parties--not for individual candidates--will decide all the seats in the upcoming parliament.
The demand represents a forceful challenge by civilian politicians to the military leadership, whose stewardship of Egypt's democratic transition has faced criticism from a cross-section of political forces.
"Given that the lack of trust between the political powers and the SCAF is increasing, they started to think about the necessity of the SCAF being strict about former members of the National Democratic Party not going back to political life" said Nasser Amin, head of the Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary, a Cairo-based advocacy group.
The threatened boycott represents growing frustration with the military's perceived reluctance to cleanse the country's institutions of members of the former ruling National Democratic Party, many of whose leaders hailed from military backgrounds.
Freedom and Justice is by far the largest group in the Democratic Alliance, which includes the secular-minded Al Wafd Party and several fundamentalist Salafi Islamist parties.
Before a revolution toppled President Hosni Mubarak and the NDP early this year, members of the Muslim Brotherhood were banned from running for office on behalf of their organization, though some ran as independent candidates.
A court ruling dissolved the NDP in April, and its members have gone on to establish and lead as many as nine new political parties. Representatives for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party have also argued to revive a "Treachery Law" that would forbid NDP members from holding public office for a period of up to 10 years.
"If this group of people were isolated for five or 10 years, that would give a chance for the new parties, especially the parties of the youth," said Saad al-Katatny, the vice president of the Freedom and Justice Party.
Calls to prosecute "regime remnants" have been a point of friction between protesters and politicians and the military leadership since Mr. Mubarak ceded power to the armed forces in February.
The public prosecutor has tried and convicted dozens of former regime leaders, but so far none of the charges have included vote-rigging.
The SCAF, under pressure from politicians, amended the elections law this week to allow only one-third of parliamentarians to be elected as individual candidates.
The original election law, passed in the summer, said one-half of the delegates would be elected based on votes for parties and the other half elected by individual candidacy.
Most politicians weren't satisfied with the change. Many believe an individual-candidate vote would open the door to the same system of vote-buying and patronage that safeguarded the NDP's dominance of parliament for more than 30 years under Mr. Mubarak.
"We want to change the mentality of political life to support a political party and an ideology of the political party," said Samir Awad Bassem, a leader in the Al Ghad party, which is part of the Democratic Alliance. "We don't want people to support someone because they like him or because their family supports him."
The military hasn't commented on the reasoning behind its amendment to the election law this week.
Tareq al-Bishry, a highly regarded judge and Islamist intellectual, has publicly defended the SCAF's decisions. He argued in Egyptian newspapers this week that excluding independents from the elections would violate Egypt's constitution, which provides space for unaffiliated candidates.
Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com
Moving Toward the Polls
March 28 Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces sets parliamentary elections for late September
April 30 The formerly outlawed Muslim Brotherhood officially registers its first legal political party, Freedom and Justice
May 1 The Muslim Brotherhood says it plans to contest one-half of seats in parliament, despite earlier statements that it would run for only about one-third of seats
July 13 Egypt's military announces delay of parliamentary elections until November
July 29 Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian Islamists, including Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood, fill Cairo's Tahrir Square in a show of political force
Sept. 27 Military concedes to politicians' demands by increasing the number of seats contestable by party list
Sept. 28 The Brotherhood-led Democratic Alliance threatens to boycott elections unless all seats are contested by party list rather than by individuals