Egyptian urges election boycott

Showing rift, others in ElBaradei’s opposition call his decision hasty

— Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei called Saturday for a boycott of parliamentary elections, drawing immediate criticism from some within his movement who said it was a hasty decision.

The dispute showed the fragility of a fairly new opposition front forged after the deeply fragmented movement found little success at the polls since it led the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

“[I] called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception,” Nobel laureate El-Baradei, who leads the opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on his Twitter account.

The comment reiterated a frequently heard opposition sentiment that democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi is acting like Mubarak.

Elections under Mubarak’s three-decade rule were widely rigged and parliament was dominated by members of his ruling party.

Morsi called for the elections in a decree late Thursday night - a four-stage vote starting at the end of April and concluding in June.

On Friday, ElBaradei said holding elections during this time of deep political polarization “is a recipe for disaster.”

The deputy head of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Essam el-Erian, responded to ElBaradei’s call on his Facebook page.

“Running away from a popular test only means that some want to assume executive authority without a democratic mandate,” he said of the opposition. “We’ve never yet known them to face any election or serious test.”

The mutual recriminations reflected a new escalation in political tensions that could spill into even wider strikes and protests ahead of the elections.

The opposition has accused Morsi and his Brotherhood backers of using election wins to monopolize power in tactics similar to the former regime.

They accuse Morsi of reneging on a promise to form an inclusive government representative of the Christian minority, women and liberals.

In the country’s last major vote, a hotly disputed constitutional referendum in December, ElBaradei urged his supporters at the last minute to participate and vote “no”after a debate within the opposition over whether to boycott.

The referendum was mired in controversy and rights groups criticized unchecked voting irregularities.

Almost immediately after ElBaradei’s boycott call Saturday, rifts began to emerge in the opposition. Even members of his opposition bloc the National Salvation Front, said the group had not yet decided on a boycott.

Some activists criticized the call, saying it would alienate the masses and allow the Brotherhood free rein over the lower house of parliament, which writes laws and is supposed to monitor the president.

In Egypt’s first free elections in 2011, the Brotherhood won nearly half of the seats in parliament, and the more conservative Islamists known as Salafis won a quarter.

Within months of being elected, the lower house of parliament was disbanded in June last year after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a third of the chamber’s members were elected illegally.

This spring’s elections are to reinstate the legislature.

Liberal and secular parties have trailed significantly in all elections since Mubarak was toppled. Their outreach across Egypt, while growing, is still dwarfed by the Islamists’ well-organized network of charities and programs that assist the poor.

Shadi Taha, a leading figure of al-Ghad al-Thawra party led by former Mubarak rival Ayman Nour, told The Associated Press that the country should be focused first on more pressing issuessuch as the economy, education and health care.

The party has not yet decided if it will boycott.

ElBaradei’s opposition coalition, which was only formed late last year, had warned for weeks that it could boycott if certain conditions were not met first.

The National Salvation Front said it wants a real national dialogue that leads to the formation of a more inclusive government, changes to the constitution and stability.

Egypt’s new constitution, approved in late December, says that procedures for elections should begin within two months of the charter being ratified but does not set a deadline for the vote.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians complained that elections start around Palm Sunday and Easter, prompting Morsi to review the timing of the vote. Minority Christians have consistently voted against the Brotherhood.

On Saturday, Morsi changed the start of voting to April 22 instead of April 28.

Egypt’s oldest opposition party, al-Wafd, steered clear of immediately supporting a boycott. Instead, the party said it will file a lawsuit against elections being announced before laws governing the vote are approved.

Elsewhere, a civil-disobedience campaign in Port Said entered its seventh day Saturday. The protesters are demanding retribution for those killed during recent unrest. There have also been near daily protests in Cairo and in the textile producing city of Mahalla.

Information for this article was contributed by Mosaad el-Gohary of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 02/24/2013

Upcoming Events