SUEZ: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafi Al-Nour Party dominated the competition in Suez, as the second round of parliamentary elections kicked off on Wednesday.
Emad Wesseily, candidate leading the Egyptian Bloc’s list, said the Bloc was in a fierce competition with the Islamists.
"But there are a lot of people who have a high level of awareness and won’t be manipulated by religion," Wesseily told Daily News Egypt.
The Egyptian Bloc brings together liberal and leftist parties including the Free Egyptians, founded by businessman Naguib Sawiris, Al-Tagammu Party and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.
Six seats in the People’s Assembly are up for grabs in Suez, including four allocated to the party lists and two for individual candidates. A total of 110 candidates are competing over the individual seats, while 12 lists are competing over the governorate’s four seats.
Two women approached Wesseily while he was standing outside Ahmed Shawqy School in El-Arbein, the site of demonstrations and intense clashes during the January uprising, complaining that the station was too crowded, and claiming that they were insulted for being Copts.
"Muslim women supporting the Salafis called us ‘atheists’ because we’re Christian and we want to vote for the Egyptian Bloc," Mary Shawqy, 25 told DNE.
Shawqy said she would return to the station in the evening when the number of voters had dwindled. The polling stations were scheduled to remain open until 7 pm.
Mohamed Ibrahim, the lead FJP candidate on the party’s list, believed that the Egyptian Bloc would garner the support of all the Copts in Suez.
"There are 28,000 Coptic voters in Suez who will vote for the Bloc because the Church supports it," Ibrahim said.
The Egyptian Bloc had repeatedly denied claims that it was backed by the Church in the first round of elections.
In the midst of the ongoing religious polarization, supporters of the centrist Al-Wasat Party believe they could emerge as the winners.
Sayed, the brother of Al-Wasat candidate Essam Shebl, said that after the FJP and Al-Nour dominated the first round, voters will choose Al-Wasat. The founders of the party left the Brotherhood in the 1990s to establish this centrist party on a more moderate platform.
"Al-Wasat is a more moderate party and I believe people will support us more in the second round of elections," Sayed Shebl said.
The FJP and Al-Nour said that residents of Suez are religious, conservative people who choose to be represented by parties with strong Islamic frames of reference. Yet, representatives of both parties stressed that their presence in the street and the services they provide were the key to their popularity.
"The Muslim Brotherhood has been doing social and religious work in Suez for years," Ibrahim said.
Sheikh Abdel Khaleq Mohamed, the candidate who heads Al-Nour’s Party list, said that he had been a religious scholar in Suez for 37 years.
Many of the voters interviewed said they favored Al-Nour Party over the FJP since the former applied Islamic Sharia.
"Al-Nour is a party that serves God and that’s why I chose them," said Atteyyat Ahmed, 60.
Mona Adel Meguid, 45, said that Al-Nour is more religious and conservative than the FJP.
However, others believed the FJP had more political experience which would help them achieve more in parliament.
Adel El-Tawil, 50, and Reda Moussa, 42, said they voted for the FJP because they were more organized and had political experience, unlike Al-Nour which didn’t have a clear political program.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a banned group since 1954, used to field candidates as independents in parliamentary elections. Their social work and organization helped them become the most powerful opposition force under Mubarak’s reign, where they won 88 seats in the 2005 PA elections. However its members were subjected to systematic crackdowns and detainments like the Salafis.
Salafi groups, meanwhile, had generally shunned politics under Mubarak.
On his part, Saad Metwally, who voted for Al-Nour Party, said, "Whether we vote for Al-Nour or the FJP, they’re both Muslims."
He, like the rest of his family, voted for Al-Nour.
Both Mohamed and Ibrahim described the elections as the "era of freedom for them."
Pointing fingers
The FJP, Al-Nour and the Egyptian Bloc exchanged accusations of campaign violations, including distributing promotional flyers outside polling stations.
The FJP accused the Egyptian Bloc of distributing flyers urging people to vote for both Al-Nour and the FJP in the list ballots, which would spoil their vote.
However, Sherif Samir, media coordinator of the Free Egyptians Party which spearheads the Bloc, denied these accusations saying they made no sense.
Only one party must be chosen from the party list in order for the vote to be valid.
Outside polling stations FJP youth used their laptops to help voters retrieve they voting information. However, instead of writing the voting information on the back of an FJP card including the party’s candidates — as was reported in round one of elections — the information was written on a blank piece of paper.
Judge Ahmed El-Saied Abdel Aziz said he filed complaints against people who were trying to influence voters to cast their ballot in favor of the Islamists.
The booths and flyers which were seen outside polling stations in the first round were absent, as the campaigning took place in a more discreet manner.
Turnout
The turnout was high among women, while in other schools the turnout seemed a lot less than that observed in the first round.
Judge Hisham Nasr said that only 250 voters had showed up by 1:30 pm, in the two electoral committees he was supervising in Al-Zahraa School near El- Arbein, there were 2,000 eligible voters were expected.
Military police beefed up security outside polling stations, amid low presence of police.
Military trucks were parked outside the schools and many journalists were prevented from entering some polling stations based on orders from military personnel.
According to regulations, only the judges supervising the committees are authorized to approve or prevent journalists from entering.
Suez witnessed the most violent clashes between police forces and peaceful protesters during the 18-day revolt which toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in February.
The first Egyptian to die in the protests was from Suez, Mostafa Ragab Mohamed, shot dead on the night of Jan. 25. Feelings of resentment against police remain ten months later.
"The people are still angry with the police. I believe if those responsible for killing the martyrs were prosecuted, things would be better," said Abdel Meguid.
Sayed Shebl agreed, saying that the police were absent from the streets of Suez, while the military forces stepped in to fill the void and protect the residents.
