So the race to the presidency of Egypt has now been finalised to 13 candidates, each of whom is striving to be the ultimate winner.
So the race to the presidency of Egypt has now been finalised to 13 candidates, each of whom is striving to be the ultimate winner.
On the ground, and no matter how much is said about objective electoral campaigning that ought not trifle with the free will of the voters, it is obvious that competition is fierce between the Islamists on one side, and the independents and those who stand for a civil State on the other. This should practically polarise the vote, so that the final would be contested by two candidates who would each represent one of these sides.
In both camps, the Islamist and the civil, intensive efforts are being done to gauge the public support of each candidate, thus his opportunity to score votes. It may be necessary in the end for each camp to stand for a single candidate in order to avoid fragmentation of the vote and score a winner.
In the Islamist camp, negotiations have been ongoing between the supporters of Abdel-Moniem Abul-Fotouh, Selim al-Awwa, and Mohamed Morsi so that two should withdraw and let only one contest the race. Once this is achieved, the single Islamist candidate would be sure to garner the votes of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, the Gamaa Islamiya, and all other Islamist or Islamist-leaning voters.
In the camp of the independents or the advocates for a civil State, we see no such effort at consolidating votes. Every candidate on this front carries obvious political weight and possesses a vision that will no doubt translate into an electoral platform which will be put before the public soon enough. Each candidate has his legitimate ambitions to the presidency of Egypt. Yet the question which begs an answer is: who can make it on his own, independent of the others? And who will leave the race solely with the comfort of having had the honour of giving it their best shot? Which leads to another all-important question: Can the civic camp afford to lose the race merely for failing to aggregate the vote in favour of the man with the best chance of winning?
I see that the question of vote aggregation should be taken seriously by the civic camp, as it has been in the Islamist camp. This will require the wisdom and political savvy to determine the criteria a candidate for the presidency should measure up to. Not least among these should be the political credit of each, the leadership posts he occupied, the capability to deal with State institutions, previous experience in Arab and international relations, political vision, economic and development plans, as well as the candidate’s standing with the public. These criteria should make it easy to determine what chance each candidate stands to win and, consequently, who may quit the race in favour of another.
We are indeed on the threshold of public alliances to support a small number of candidates—the fewer the better—which is a reasonable, legitimate, exercise for each competing camp. It is unthinkable that such an exercise would ever be branded as trifling with the will of the voters. Should we expect to see, throughout the coming weeks, efforts in this direction?