Once President Sisi was sworn in on 2 April 2024, commencing his third presidential term that runs till 2030, many have voiced their aspirations for the President to tackle various issues on the political, economic and social fronts. Among the most significant, if not the most significant, has been the issue of improving the quality of life of Egyptians, which naturally involves weathering inflation and price fluctuations. Self-evidently, the President has to focus on national security and foreign policy issues, given the delicate balances they hold. Another issue which is in no way less important is that of the need to develop the political party map in Egypt. This is an issue that has remained shelved, unspoken of by the political parties themselves, the Party Affairs Committee, or Parliament. The unhealthy situation of the political party map hardly resonates with the political role it is required to play. It begs the question: Does the current political party map serve the political and democratic interests of Egyptians? If the answer is “yes”, let things stay as they are, but if “no”, then what should be done? From a purely patriotic perspective, I feel the urge to place this issue in the hands of the President as he begins his new presidential term: “President Sisi, as we talk of development, how about developing the political party map of Egypt?”
Since I have always been preoccupied with the issue, kindly allow me to navigate through editorials I had previously written on the topic, demanding that relevant authorities take party reform seriously. On 29 November 2020, I wrote under the title ‘In need of party reform’: “We stand before a reality that looks shiny on the outside but is in fact ailing. The unconditional freedom to form parties has left us with more than 100 parties on the scene, most of which lack the basic measures for wholesome parties. No measures are in place to check the political inclinations of newly formed parties, or to evaluate their weight among the public, or the magnitude of their membership. This has resulted in party fragmentation; we ended up with ineffective sham parties.. Once again I refer to President Sisi’s declaration in May 2017 during a meeting with the chief editors of State owned papers; he said: ‘I have more than once called upon parties with similar agendas and political views to merge, in order to create [a few] strong parties [instead of numerous, conflicting, feeble ones]. Only then will the parties produce calibres that qualify for power rotation. I wish to see parties with the same principles strive towards collaboration and mergers.’
“I have repeatedly written about that in my numerous editorials which tackled this very concern on 29 October 2017, 28 January 2018, 25 February 2018, 22 April 2018, 27 May 2018, 14 October 2018, 3 February 2019 and 29 December 2019. I even wondered what if the parties fail to voluntarily join forces, and Parliament is too overburdened to tackle this predicament, would the President take the lead by sending Parliament a legislative mandate or the government a draft law to achieve this party reform? Can we see that in the near future?”
Once again, on 14 August 2022, I wrote about the same topic under the title ‘National Dialogue and political parties’: “I begin my contribution to the National Dialogue with my view of political party life in Egypt, the issue the least bright and most bitter. An unbiased observer of party activity in Egypt would undoubtedly admit frustration at the failure to detect any effective party contribution to the political map or any impact or added value to political endeavour and democratic practice. To say nothing of the failure of these parties to produce competent calibres or leaders, or their ability to bring about peaceful power rotation.. It is impossible to overlook the fact that the current Egyptian party scene was created out of the loose principle of the total freedom to establish political parties. On the ground, the Party Affairs Committee accepted all applications that met the pre-set requirements for the organisational form of parties, as long as their political agendas excluded religious, racial or extremist loyalties. Accordingly, a multitude of nascent parties was allowed to join the political scene; their numbers exceeded 100. At first sight, this might give the impression of diversity and amplitude, but the bitter truth is that these parties have been rightly dubbed “cartoon parties”; they only existed in their constituent groups, they never made it to the Egyptian street, nor have they offered clear visions and programmes to win over members or to empower active participation in political life and elections.. The Party Affairs Committee believed it had done a perfect job that fulfilled the Constitutional requirement of freedom of party work. The committee was happy it approved an unprecedented number of parties, yet it failed to see that it was its responsibility to put in place some mechanism to periodically assess the performance of the parties approved, regarding their political views, activity, participation and the rate of growth of their membership base. The committee seemed oblivious of the persistent fragmentation and ineffectiveness on the party scene.. The committee could have spurred parties of comparable political views to join forces, consolidating thus their membership base and guaranteeing their perseverance on the political scene, otherwise they would be annulled and have to leave.. I aspire for a political map restricted to possibly five blocs: right, centre-right, centre, centre-left, and left.. The truth on the ground is that the parties still have not taken the initiative to achieve that. So will the National Dialogue do that?”
Now that Egyptians have elected President Sisi for a third term, and he has taken the constitutional oath to carry the torch until 2030, I entrust him with the responsibility of developing the party scene, among other developmental requirements in all fields of life in Egypt. Only then would we be ready for effective political participation and the democratic entitlement for power rotation.
Watani International
12 April 2024