CAIRO, 25 August 2005 — It’s Wednesday and Egypt’s candidates have been campaigning a full week in the country’s unprecedented first-ever multiparty elections.
Yet the fever for the Sept. 7 polls that has hit candidates and media alike does not seem to have infected the working class people who represent the majority of the country’s 72 million population.
The 10 eligible candidates for the presidential elections launched their campaigns last week with a flurry of activities that saw current president Hosni Mubarak tirelessly touring the country to urge, for the first time, his people to vote for him.
In addition to Mubarak, two other contenders — Ayman Nour of the liberal Ghad party and Noaman Gomaa of the center-right Wafd party - are the focus of media attention.
With Mubarak widely pegged to win the poll, the race focuses on who of the two other main contenders will take second place. Local media have been focusing on Mubarak’s “new look” during his campaign.
Dressed casually in a suit with no tie, Mubarak has so far made three speeches, two in Cairo and one in the industrial city of Tenth of Ramadan, 50 kilometers east of the capital. He is expected in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, some 200 kilometers south of Cairo, today.
The president has attempted in his campaign to appear accessible - forsaking his usual front row seat to sit with crowds after delivering speeches, appearing in a farm drinking tea and talking about the problems of struggling working class Egyptians.
In compliance with Information Ministry regulations, only excerpts of Mubarak’s speeches have appeared on official television. However, his speeches are being exclusively broadcast in full on a private Egyptian satellite channel owned by a businessman close to the regime. State-owned newspapers and television stations are reporting news of other candidates — also an unprecedented phenomenon — but still face criticism of bias.
In yesterday’s independent Al-Masry Al-Youm daily, a report surveying Monday’s issues in the three main official papers said that over 13,000 words were dedicated to Mubarak while 3,000 words in total were written on the other nine candidates. “These papers have turned into the mouthpiece of the NDP,” read the headline referring to the ruling National Democratic Party, which Mubarak heads.
Still, observers believe even a mere loosening of the Mubarak regime and his apparatus toward critical opponents is a step forward. The bustle of activity that has dominated the candidates and the media, however, comes in stark contrast with the apathy displayed by the working class.
One major theme has been repeated by Egyptians interviewed by Deutsche Presse-Agentur in the past week: “What’s the point of voting if we know Mubarak will surely win?” The 77-year-old has ruled for 24 years — as long as the memory of most Egyptians, who, unaccustomed to change, believe that a president they know is safer than one they don’t. “We will not fare better if we get another president,” says Ahmad, a stationary salesman.
Ahmad, 30, knows no other president and clings to the hope that Mubarak would keep his promise of creating over four million jobs if he is elected for a fifth six-year term. Despite Ahmad’s support for Mubarak, he does not have an electoral card and will not vote on Sept. 7.
Mohammed, a 49-year-old taxi driver, lives in the popular Abul Gheit neighborhood in northeast Cairo. He too believes it is pointless to take part in the voting process because he has no doubt Mubarak will win. “He controls everything,” he says about Mubarak. Mohammed says he was approached by a member of Mubarak’s NDP who offered to issue him a party membership card. “I refused because I want nothing to do with politics. It is not my concern what the big people do,” Mohammed says.
Nineteen-year-old Ibtisam Mohammad from the city of Tanta, 90 kilometers north of Cairo, says she will vote for Ayman Nour because she believes he is the right person to combat youth unemployment.
However, she says she only knows about Nour because her father is a lawyer — an indication that she belongs to the educated class. “The farmers don’t know him because he is not on state television and they don’t have satellite,” she says.
Another Egyptian who asked not to be named admitted that while these elections are different, the results will still be the same. “It’s a circus and each clown presents his talents to get the highest applause. In the end, Mubarak will sit again on his chair and forget his promises,” he says.
