CAIRO, 10 December 2005 — Egypt’s ruling party said yesterday that the country is “living in a state of marvelous awakening” after it won nearly three-quarters of seats in legislative elections despite historic gains by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Official results from the vote that ended Wednesday handed 73 percent of 454 parliamentary seats to the National Democratic Party, even as the outlawed but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood made a major jump with 20 percent of seats. The NDP’s party spokesman dismissed the Brotherhood’s shock election showing in remarks published yesterday, saying instead that the vote results show the public’s confidence in the long-time ruling party.
“The NDP’s victory makes the dreams of Egyptians a reality,” NDP Secretary-General Safuat Al-Sherif said in comment reported by state media. The NDP “is completely confident that the country is living in a state of marvelous awakening and participation (in elections) which allowed the party to obtain the anticipated majority.”
A prominent member of the NDP reformist wing, Mohammed Kamel, said that “unfortunately, violence has become part of the electoral culture in Egypt.” Egyptian newspapers questioned how the NDP — which technically took fewer total seats (147) than independents (179) although a significant number of independent candidates are supporters of President Hosni Mubarak — will be able to carry out the president’s campaign pledges.
Local press also devoted considerable space to the gains made by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement founded in 1928 that campaigned on the slogan: “Islam is the solution.” “The rise of the religious movement in elections and the regression of other parties including the NDP marks a turning point in Egypt’s political life,” wrote Kamel in the government-run daily Al-Akhbar.
Nobel Prize winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz said it was important not to “exaggerate the concern” raised by the Brotherhood’s success. “It is preferable to have this religious movement in the Parliament rather than kept in secret. Exclusion feeds fanaticism,” he wrote in the top-selling Al-Ahram daily.
Mahfouz added that “of much greater concern is the sad failure of the secular opposition,” including the liberal Wafd party, the Communist Tagamu and the Nasserist Karama parties, which together won only 14 seats, or three percent of the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood, who control one in five parliamentary seats after spectacular gains in recent polls, says they are ready to break a long-standing taboo and engage in contacts with Washington. The movement’s spokesman Issam Al-Aryan welcomed the comments of a senior US State Department official who said Washington was likely to seek contacts with the Brotherhood.
