The 2012 elections of the People’s Assembly (PA)—the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament—which combined the individual candidacy and slate systems, witnessed the highest voter turnout in many decades. Egyptians from all walks of life,
The 2012 elections of the People’s Assembly (PA)—the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament—which combined the individual candidacy and slate systems, witnessed the highest voter turnout in many decades. Egyptians from all walks of life, including women and Copts, had a strong presence in polling stations. Voter turnout among Copts was even higher than the overall average. Despite the fact that Coptic candidates won no more than eight seats in the PA—all of them contested the elections on party lists, none ran individually—one can safely say that Coptic voting in general went beyond sectarian considerations and was mainly based on the citizenship concept.
Coptic quota?
The Copts who made it to the PA are MPs Amin Iskandar (professional, al-Karama Party), Emad Gad (professional, Egyptian Social Democratic Party), Margerite Azer (worker, al-Wafd Party), Hilmy Samuel Azer (worker, Egyptian Social Democratic Party), Badr Baraa Zakher Numan (worker, al-Wassat Party), Naguib Lotfy Naguib (worker, Reform and Development Party), Ra’fat Seifein Halim Khalil (peasant, Reform and Development Party), and Ihab Adel Ramzy (professional, al-Hurriya Party).
Throughout ten PA elections since 1976, no more than ten Coptic nominees, eight of them members of the erstwhile ruling National Democratic Party, managed to win through the individual candidacy system. Over the same period, the number of Coptic nominees contesting the elections has been steadily on the rise: from 17 in 1976 to 177 in 2012. Among the 27 Copts who contested the runoffs in the same period, only one emerged victorious, proving that the slate system does not allow Copts access to parliament. This situation was behind the late President Nasser’s decision in the 1960s to amend the constitution in order to grant the president of the republic the prerogative of appointing 10 MPs to the PA. Noteworthy is that the Copts have opposed the principle of a Coptic quota since 1922.
Vital Coptic contribution
On the average, a candidate nominated through a list needs to secure 80,000 votes to win, meaning that in the recent elections Coptic winners secured around 640,000 votes. If we suppose that the 112 Coptic individual candidates scored a million votes, the total number of votes for Coptic candidates would be around 1,640,000.
In many cases, Coptic voters supported non-Coptic candidates. There were Coptic winners on lists of the Karama, Wassat, Wafd, Egyptian Social Democratic, Free Egyptians, Reform and Development, and Freedom parties. These parties secured more than 6 million votes. If we suppose that Coptic voting accounted for 15 per cent of the total number of votes these parties secured, it will mean that Copts provided theses parties with 900,000 votes. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s candidates won Coptic votes in several constituencies, notably in Alexandria and Assiut.
Measuring Coptic participation in the elections should by no means be measured by the number of Coptic winners. Rather, it can be said that Coptic votes contributed to the success of around 40 candidates. Their role in producing the success of the election experience in its entirety cannot be sufficiently underscored.
May the best man win
In view of all the above, it can be safely said that Coptic contribution in the 2012 PA elections was the highest ever since July 1952. This parliament laid the foundation of their active participation in politics on a national rather than a sectarian basis. The fact that 70 per cent of Coptic votes went to Muslim candidates proves that Copts behaved as Egyptian citizens rather than a sectarian community. In his statement ahead of the elections, Pope Shenouda III urged Copts to go to the ballots and vote for the best candidate, be it Muslim or Copt. Many a Muslim candidate, he said, may serve Coptic interests and defend Copts better than a Copt.
The majority of Coptic votes went to progressive, liberal, and leftist blocks: mainly al-Kutla al-Misriya (The Egyptian Block) and al-Thawra Mustamirra (The Revolution Continues) list. Only a minority voted Islamists or for parties loyal to the former regime. This fact indicates that political Christianity is based on a civil frame of reference that believes in pluralism and accepting the other.