Egypt in political soul-searching mode after El Sisi calls out voting irregularities

Calls grow for entire parliamentary election to be cancelled as flaws open up wider debate on Egyptian politics

A woman votes during the first round of Egyptian parliamentary elections in November. EPA

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had good advice for Egypt's 70 million voters: Don't sell your vote!

If you do, Mr El Sisi's said, you are empowering someone who is not good, making him your voice and placing the welfare of your country in his trust.

The Egyptian leader's counsel was delivered in televised comments just days after a November 17 social media post in which he called out the National Elections Authority for not taking action on irregularities in the first round of parliamentary elections.

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The president's intervention unleashed a political storm unprecedented during his 11 years in charge of the country of 108 million.

His action was widely lauded by the pro-government media as a masterstroke that put a stop to unbridled electoral fraud, under a system widely suspected to be orchestrated by security agencies and police keen on ensuring the next parliament is fully on board with government policies.

The president's action also appears to have broadened the relatively narrow margin of freedom of expression, allowing critics to air their views on the electoral process and how the country has been run.

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Giza. AFP

So far, the results of elections in 47 constituencies – well over half of those contested in the first round of the two-stage vote – have been voided and more are expected to follow.

There are also growing calls for the cancellation of the entire election. Concerns have been raised about the fairness of the electoral law that allows pro-government “closed lists” of candidates to win without a real contest.

Moreover, and perhaps more significantly, a conversation has begun on social media and in relatively independent segments of the media about how the electoral debacle has laid bare the need for far-reaching political reform. This is a nation that has barely seen genuine democratic rule since independence from Britain and the abolition of the monarchy in the 1950s.

New elections?

Questions remain over whether Mr El Sisi's intervention to call out electoral irregularities was enough to allay doubts that the next chamber will be representative of the voters' will.

“I regret to say that I don't think it will,” said Ziad Bahaa-Eldin, a former deputy prime minister. “In fact, I fear the next parliament, even after [the president's intervention], will not be representative of the popular will and remain defective in people's eyes,” he said.

But he believes that annulling the election altogether would “plunge the nation into a very complicated constitutional crisis”. Egypt's “aim must remain to be a political reform programme that frees party activities and the fight against electoral bribery”.

Others such as the Civilian Democratic Movement, a coalition of opposition parties, think annulling the vote would be the most appropriate way to end the widespread scepticism.

“The movement demands the annulment of this election and reviewing the laws governing it,” it said in a statement late last month.

“It has become clear that authorities are determined to run the political process with a mindset of exclusion and control … ignoring pressing calls for genuine and real reform,” said the statement.

Former lawmaker and senior political researcher Imad Gad is in favour of annulling the election and giving Mr El Sisi legislative powers for a limited period, before holding “clean and fair elections that are befitting for a country like Egypt and which meets with the satisfaction of the people”.

There is a precedent for what Mr Gad proposes. Parliament was dissolved when the military toppled President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 amid mass street protests against the Islamist leader's one-year rule. An interim president, Adly Mansour, and later Mr El Sisi himself, legislated by decree until a new parliament was elected in 2015.

Motorists drive past campaign billboard for Egyptian Parliamentary election candidates in the greater Cairo area. AFP

El Sisi's 2030 question

The discussion over electoral fraud has gained added significance because the vote, even if eventually validated, will produce a chamber packed with pro-government members likely to act as a little more than a rubber stamp for government policies.

The next chamber will also likely to undertake the milestone step of amending the constitution by 2028 or 2029 to allow Mr El Sisi to stay in office beyond 2030, the end of his second six-year term.

Mr El Sisi has not publicly stated his intention to stay in office beyond his second term. But he has already benefited from a specially tailored clause in the constitution, adopted in a 2019 referendum, that allowed him to be in office for two more six-year terms after already serving from 2014 to 2018.

Social media accounts loyal to the 71-year-old leader are making subtle suggestions that extending the president's time at the helm is not only on the cards but sorely needed to best serve the nation's interests at a critical juncture domestically and regionally.

“Do you support a sovereign decision by Egypt that's not in the same vein as western democracy to amend the constitution to allow the leader Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to indefinitely stay in power so that we emphasise the independence of our national will?” asked a Facebook account called Supporting Military Intelligence.