Parliamentary elections in Egypt 2005

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Distribution of seats:
  • National Democratic Party , 311 seats
  • Independent ( Muslim Brotherhood ), 88 seats
  • New Wafd party , 6 seats
  • National Progressive Unionist Party , 2 seats
  • al-Ghad party , 1 seat
  • other independents, 24 seats
  • Appointed members, 10 seats

    • The 2005 Egyptian parliamentary elections were held in three rounds, in which the lower house , the so-called People's Assembly , was determined in November and December 2005 .

    The elections formed the eighth assembly since the 1971 constitution was adopted . They were seen as part of political reforms at the time. Although the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was able to maintain its majority and thus also dominated the assembly, opposition parties and independents achieved great profits: After the Muslim Brotherhood had already become stronger after the first round of elections, the last round was overshadowed by violent attempts by the security forces to prevent their supporters from entering the polling stations; 12 people were killed. The success of the Muslim Brotherhood was primarily due to their social commitment in the poor neighborhoods of Cairo , which the NDP tolerated.

    initial situation

    The number of seats in the assembly was 454, in the parliamentary elections of 2000 the ruling NDP won 417 of them. The largest opposition party, the New Wafd Party , had just six seats, followed closely by the National Progressive Unionist Party . The Arab Democratic Nasserist Party and the Liberal Party each had one seat . The independents had 14 seats and a further 10 seats were appointed.

    Attendees

    Over 7,000 candidates ran in 22 constituencies for the 444 elected seats of the assembly.

    There were a total of 8 recognized political parties that covered a broad political spectrum, as well as various interest groups, such as the Kifaja movement ( "Enough!" ) And the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood .

    execution

    The official observers of the elections were the judiciary and the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) from the executive branch. Over 30 human rights organizations, civil society groups and non-governmental organizations pledged to observe the elections.

    The judiciary called on civil society to set up a "National Election Observation Authority" which would then also monitor the parliamentary elections. This authority would also replace the wooden ballot boxes with transparent ones (which were introduced this year), install surveillance cameras in the polling stations - which ensure observation of the election process (which was also partly done by the media) - and broadcast the vote counts live on state television.

    Results after the first ballot

    Of the 164 seats, the National Democratic Party won 112 seats (around 75%), the secular political parties 5 seats and the Independents a total of 47 seats. Of the 47 Independents elected, 34 were Muslim Brotherhood candidates , which was seen as the main surprise of this election. In addition, the Brotherhood doubled its presence in the congregation in the first ballot alone.

    According to official figures, almost 2,300,000 registered voters cast their votes, which resulted in an overall turnout of around 23%.

    Runoff elections

    Runoff elections were held in 74 constituencies over 133 seats, with the number of registered voters reaching approximately 9,990,550. As a result of the runoff elections, the National Democratic Party candidates won 85 seats, the New Wafd Party candidates 2, the National Progressive Unionist Party also 2, the al-Ghad party one and independent candidates 43.

    The third and final round runoff elections were held on Wednesday December 7th for the remaining 127 seats. Eleven seats went to the Muslim Brotherhood and the NDP held 111, with 5 seats still vacant. The results in some constituencies were later announced and 12 seats were decided in additional runoff elections.

    Overall result

    The officially banned Muslim Brotherhood , whose candidates ran as independents, now had a total of 87 seats in the 454-seat assembly, almost six times the number of seats it had previously. The ruling National Democratic Party won at least 311 seats, significantly less than the 404 seats it won in the 2000 elections, but nine seats above the critical two-thirds majority (302 seats) required to amend the Constitution.

    Opposition parties and other non-attached independents together won 36 seats. With the results of some constituencies later announced and seven candidates still running in by-elections, that group won more seats.

    A total of 432 members of the previous assembly (about 77.5%) lost their seats in the elections.

    The 454 seats of the Eighth People's Assembly:

    Political party Seats Net
    profit / loss     		Seat share
     National Democratic Party 311 −42 68.5%
     New Wafd party 6th −1 1.3%
     National Progressive Unionist Party 2 −4 0.4%
     al-Ghad party 1 +1 0.2%
     Arab Democratic Nasserist Party or Nasserist Party 0 −3 0%
     Liberal Party 0 −1 0%
     Independent ( Muslim Brotherhood ) 88 +71 19.4%
     Independent (other) 24 −31 5.3%
     Appointed Members 10 0 2.2%
    total 454 0 100%

    Meaning and impact

    Triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood

    One of the most surprising election results was the five times the number of seats in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The Muslim Brotherhood thus form the largest opposition bloc in parliament. They got these seats without having a program or clear policy and challenged the other parties with a slogan, "Islam is the solution".

    The Copts , moderate Muslims and secular circles in particular are concerned about the Brotherhood , as the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood still remains vague.

    Many argue that now - with the Muslim Brotherhood in the legislature rather than underground - it must now present its ideas fully to public opinion, where its view must now be subject to debate, criticism and revision. This must go hand in hand with the transformation of most of their extreme ideas to more secular ones, something the group is used to doing in the political arena. Those intellectuals argue that suppressing religious currents does not weaken them, it actually strengthens them. The results of this election seem to signal the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood from a popular underground organization to a civil political party.

    Religion and politics

    Many political experts and writers argue that the main slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood is a violation of the Egyptian constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion and the equality of citizens. While the Muslim Brotherhood continually asserts that since the Constitution took over Islamic Sharia as one of the sources of legislation and Islam as the state religion, the slogan has therefore also followed the line of the Constitution.

    Even through the extensive campaigns launched by the National Democratic Party aimed at curbing support for this slogan and instead asserting the separation of state and religion , the NDP and other groups have turned to either Islamic or Coptic religious figures to support theirs Win programs.

    Some analysts fear that such an introduction of religion into politics could endanger the reforms towards a secular and liberal country and unsettle their Coptic Christian population .

    Failure of secularism

    The official political parties and especially the social liberal left have lost their seats and their ideological influence through the voting population. In addition to the symbolic and leading figures who lost their seats, such as Aiman ​​Nur of the al-Ghad party and Monir Fakhri Abdel Nour of the New Wafd party , the unsuccessfulness of their ideas, as well as their lack of mobility and real political activity, weighed on less than 10 seats, which is a percentage of only 2.2%.

    The main political parties formed the United National Front for Change (UNFC), which delivers ambiguous programs for political and constitutional reform, albeit without any connection with grassroots voters , resulting in large losses for their fielded candidates.

    The political failure includes not only the opposition but also the National Democratic Party . The NDP lost over 100 of its seats in that election, with some of its most influential reform figures as well as long-serving political figures. The NDP also failed to increase voter turnout . The low turnout, which was estimated at around 25%, goes hand in hand with the fact that around half of the votes for the Muslim Brotherhood were protest votes against the NDP.

    The NDP continues to hold a comfortable majority of 68% of the seats in the assembly, which enables it to advance its program of economic liberalization . However, the process will no longer run smoothly as before.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ http://weekly.ahram.org.eg
    2. ↑ http://weekly.ahram.org.eg