Egypt's Wafd leader attacks elections law and accuses security elements of formulating it

Dr. Elsayyid Al-Badawi, Al-Wafd Party chairman and one of the partners in the counter revolution of 30 June 2013, has said that the 30 Junerevolution is the last revolution in Egypt for at least the next one hundred years, just like the 1919 revolution that occurred nearly 100 years ago.

In a long interview with Al-Watan newspaper on Thursday, Al-Badawi waged an offensive against the current authorities and expressed his dissatisfaction over the political path, which according to him is still unclear.

He stressed that the law was formulated by security elements and police officers inside closed rooms and warned from what could be catastrophic repercussions as a result of the forthcoming elections that will be held according to this law.

He said: “I told one of the members of the committee that formulated the law: We shall meet in parliament and you’ll see the disasters you have brought upon Egypt”.

In his interview with Al-Watan, Albadawi delved into the details saying: “The political path is still unclear. Political parties still suffer because of the elections law which has proven to be greatly defective. I am concerned about the results of the next parliamentary elections, which might see the return of those who existed before 25 January and 30 June and who may constitute a majority inside the next parliament. I believe this already foretells a state of rage and frustration among the youth.”

He went on to say: “These youth do not belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. They are the youth of the revolution who belong to the Wafd Party and to other political parties. This bodes ill and promises chaos. We shall find in the field youths who cannot be confronted. No state can ever resist its youth. Hence my apprehension regarding the political path and the fact that the democratic process in Egypt is not complete.”

He added: “The issue of the closed lists is a catastrophe. It was Hitler who invented the closed lists. This system is good only for despotic states. The last to implement it was Mussolini. We are today inventing in Egypt the system of the closed lists. This is weird and odd. This does not at all concur with democracy and the fair representation of the electorate.”

He went on to say: “There will be a large number of politicians and activists, including those who took part in the 25 January and 30 Junerevolution, who will be outside of the parliament. Their presence outside the parliament is not right because they will not be forces for construction but rather opposition forces, and may turn into forces of destruction.”

A disastrous law

In his interview with Al-Watan newspaper, the Chairman of Al-Wafd party stressed that “this law was prepared inside closed rooms and was stolen from the parties. It is a disastrous law. A group of lawyers sat down and formulated a law. The election law is a political law that is formulated by politicians and then drafted by lawyers. But, why should lawyers formulate an election law? Why? What do they know about elections? They sought the assistance of the security apparatus and with police officers who were the election experts prior to 25 January. And this explains why the law came out to look like this.”

He also said: “Those who created the elections law and propagated that it was meant to exclude the Muslim Brotherhood, and claimed that individual elections and small constituencies will guarantee excluding the Brotherhood, I say it now and I said it before to one of those who formulated the election law: we shall meet after the elections are over, and you will see what you have done to Egypt, and you will see the disaster you have created in it.”

We went on to elaborate: “Today, when you have 150 civil (secularist) candidates competing among themselves in the face against an Islamist candidate, this will lead to fragmenting the votes given to the candidates and in the second round the competition will be between one of the candidates and a candidate representing the religious parties. For example, we shall have in Egypt 220 constituencies. There will be a second round in 220 constituencies and the race in each of them will be between an Islamist and a civil (secularist). When the result is made public before the world, and it will be a true result (!) and when those Brotherhood members whom the Brotherhood nominate, and they will be hoisting the slogans of the Islamic trend, go through the second round and all fail, what will the elections look like? Even if we were to swear on the Holy Quran that they were fair elections, no one will believe us.”

He added angrily: “The elections law stepped on the parties. It contradicts the spirit and the philosophy of the constitution. We have article five of the constitution which says that political life in Egypt is based on a multi-party system and the peaceful alternation of power. How will party pluralism come about and how will the alternation of power occur in the shadow of this law, which will create a majority of independents who will amend the constitution and do everything else?

He went on to say: “In addition, the system of governance in Egypt gave the majority parties the right to form the government. How will the government be formed if we end up with a parliament 70 per cent of whose members are independents? How will the political parties form the government? We shall not have a majority government.”

About the elements of the dissolved National Party, he said: “I ask these persons, if they were truly Egyptian, and if they truly fear for the country and care for it, to take a step back. They will die if they stay away from the elections having corrupted political life in which elections used to be forged against us. And now they want to run again? Shame on them. Stay in your homes for a while. There was an agreement within the committee that there would be no exclusion for anyone. You should, by yourselves, protect the country and stay away for a while.”

Marginalising the parties

Al-Badawi attacked what he called the marginalisation of the parties saying: “Throughout the presidential elections period the president communicated well with the parties. However, today he sits with none of the 94 political parties. This amounts not only to ignoring the parties but to marginalising them. For instance, when I go to the celebrations which the President invites us to I find that parties are positioned in a place inappropriate at all for political parties. During President Mubarak’s era I went to three celebrations. The first was a graduation of Military Academy cadets; the second was a function to bestow the Nile Badge of Honour upon Dr. Magdi Yaqoub; and the third was the Police Day celebrations just two days before the revolution erupted. During the Police Day celebration I sat next to Brig. Gen. Omar Suleiman. We were sitting in the first row. At worst they used to seat us in the second row.”

He added: “However, the political parties during President Sisi’s celebrations, such as the celebration of his accession and the celebration during the Night of Vigil, were seated in the remotest place with only artists sitting behind them. I do not know the reason for this but it is terrifying. I will not hesitate to say that during the last meeting, the one on the Night of Vigil, I stood up and walked away. Engineer Akmal Qirtam, Chairman of the Conservative Party, was sitting next to me. He asked me not to leave lest I am misunderstood. I said to him my relationship with President Sisi and my love for him will not allow him to misconstrue this conduct of mine. Indeed, I stood up, moved and was about to leave the place. But I was followed by one of the president’s men who wanted to seat me in a better location. I said to him I will not be seated alone. So, Akmal Qirtam came and joined me and we were seated in the place that befits us.”

An alliance with the “Egyptian Liberals”

Al-Badawi disclosed that coordination is taking place between the Wafd Party and the Party of Egyptian Liberals. He said that the Egyptian Liberals Party prefers to take part in the individual elections, that it is ready to coordinate over that and that it is not willing to take part in the formation of lists. In other words, should Al Wafd leader stand for elections there will be no competition from the Egyptian Liberals and vice versa. No one from either party will run against the distinguished figures that run in the elections. After all, when an Egyptian Liberal enters the parliament it would be as if a Wafd member does so because they adopt the same thought and the same vision. He added: “There are certain leaders for whom we shall vacate the constituencies. This happened before 1952 and may happen again.”

He further explained that the funding allocated for the Egyptian Al-Wafd during the forthcoming elections is estimated at 100 million Egyptian pounds. Parties will contribute funds that are commensurate with their representation. The funding will be raised from the leaders of the parties and from those who believe in the thought of this alliance.

Source: Arabi21