The Egyptian elections have led to some surprises, assuming the corruption is not overwhelming. Amongst them is one of the newest political parties coming in second in the first round of parliamentary elections, the Nation’s Future Party, and the failure of a more traditional party. Mada Masr has a report on the various results:
The For the Love of Egypt electoral list, known to be a major supporter of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, swept the vote in Upper Egypt and the West Delta, while its main competitor, the Salafi Nour Party, experienced a somewhat surprising defeat.
The Nour Party lost in Alexandria, its strongest power base and the birthplace of the affiliated Salafi Dawah movement. The list only won in the Amreya district, losing the other nine districts in the governorate to For the Love of Egypt. …
One of the more surprising outcomes so far has been the rise of the Nation’s Future Party. The party was founded by 24-year-old Mohamed Badran, who was the head of the Egyptian Student Union in 2013.
Badran is known for his close relationship with Sisi, and many observers have predicted a powerful career for the budding politician. The party fielded 88 candidates in the first round of the elections, 48 of whom reached the runoffs. One of only four independent candidates in the country who won a seat outright in the first round of votes comes from Nation’s Future, while five other party members won seats as part of For the Love of Egypt.
Badran was optimistic about the runoffs in an interview with the privately owned Youm7 newspaper.
Older and better-established political parties did not seem to perform as well. The Wafd Party will see 35 of its candidates in the runoffs, while only five Egyptian Social Democratic Party candidates are still in the running.
Egyptian electoral systems are a little different than others, and Mada Masr has a tutorial here. The short description of an electoral list is that it can be made up of one or more parties and/or individuals, and they can be thought of as a package deal: if you vote for an electoral list, then you’ve voted for everyone/thing on it.
AL Monitor has an interview with Mr. Badran of the Nation’s Future Party:
Al-Monitor: How did the Nation’s Future Party manage to rank second in the first round of parliamentary elections, only a year since a young man established it?
Badran: The Nation’s Future Party started as a campaign by a group of young people who dreamed of bringing about real change, eradicating corruption and confronting crises that emerged after the two revolutions of January 25 and June 30. These crises include economic crises as well as domestic and foreign conspiracies. Following the success of the campaign, we decided to turn the revolution’s slogans, Molotov cocktails and demonstrations into action, and this is how the campaign turned into the Nation’s Future Party. Subsequently, we acquired a popular base and established several headquarters. The party’s victory in the first round of parliamentary elections was expected. It did not come as a surprise, as it was the result of a lot of work, and I expect greater success in the second round. …
Al-Monitor: Being the youngest head of a party in Egypt, what is your take on the low voter turnout, especially among young people?
Badran: Such low turnout is only natural because the youth have not felt that the two revolutions have brought about any tangible change. Also, the Egyptian people only take action when they feel that the state is seriously threatened. This was exemplified by the very high turnout for the 2012 presidential elections between former President Mohammed Morsi and Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shafiq.
The low turnout suggests either a lack of faith in the candidates, or in the system itself; the success of Mr. Badran’s party might be put down to simple statistical anomalies which can occur during low turnout elections. Then again, in a few years he may be the prime minister. AL Monitor provided coverage of this election just prior to the big day:
Hassan Nafehah, a professor of electoral sciences, told Al-Monitor, “The electoral scene may be boisterous, but there is no hope for the political factions that led the January 25 [2011] or June 30 [2013] revolutions to regain their status; the main competing forces now are those that predominantly lean toward Mubarak’s regime. Electoral lists do not reflect the real roles played by Egyptian political parties, which number around 100, as most of those lists have been imposed by security agencies.” Commenting on the state of individual candidates, Nafehah said, “Political money, partisanship, clan affiliation and personal interests prevail.”
