Municipal Elections on April 8th

Municipal Elections on April 8th

The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, has issued a republican decree declaring the beginning of municipal elections on Tuesday April, 8th, 2008 according to the law of direct organization of political rights(Law No. 73 of 1956) and (Law No. 43 of 1979) of municipal administration. The elections would start at 8am and end at 7pm the same day.


It is noteworthy that the municipal elections have been delayed on 2006 after the outstanding success of the Muslim Brotherhood in Parliamentary elections of 2005.


The National Democratic Party(NDP) issued a decree on 2006 to adjourn municipal elections till 2008, claiming that the Egyptian authorities needed some time to prepare a resolution for municipal government. However, such resolution have not been issued till now.


The municipal elections are on 49,000 seats in which 140 of them would have the right to choose the next President following Hosni Mubarak.


For his part, Essam Al-Erian, a top leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, stated that the Presidential decree of the Egyptian President reveals under undemocratic circumstances where Egypt witnesses a retreat in freedoms, and under the existence of emergency law which gives the right to the government to arrest any competitors or candidates.


Al-Erian added in a private statement to Ikhwanweb that many arrest campaigns have been undertaken against the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates during the last few months. The last arrests were yesterday(Sunday Feb., 17th).


Adding that the number of detentions during the last 4 days have reached 100 from different governments in Egypt in which most of those arrested are top MB figures in such governments. Al-Erian confirmed that all such circumstances make the transparency and fairness of the coming elections a doubtful matter.


Al-Erian said that the coming municipal elections are not running under judiciary supervision. Adding that the provincial elections of 2006 have been adjourned in order to eliminate the great achievements of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2005 Parliamentary elections, confirming the government’s intention of rigging the elections running under tight security supervision and preventing candidates from having any advertising election campaigns.


Al-Erian confirmed that the Muslim Brotherhood group has invited all other political parties to gather and have a united reaction towards such elections running according to the will of the National Democratic Party. However, it was crystal clear that each political party was busy with his own internal problems.


The approaching municipal elections are taking place under wide-scale sweeps of arrests all around the governments of Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates including those who are expected to be candidates in the coming municipal elections.