Situation In Egypt Tense On Election Eve

In particular, the Muslim Brotherhood has been obstructed in every possible way. A count on the Brotherhood's website ikhwanweb.net of the number of its members arrested and detained since January has reached 831. In the past week alone, 269 Muslim brothers have been taken from their homes in the dead of night or from the streets in broad daylight. Now the Brotherhood has called for the elections to be boycotted.

In 4,500 local councils, 52,000 councillors will be elected on Tuesday. The ruling National Democrat Party of President Hosni Mubarak is fielding candidates in all constituencies. The officially banned, but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood - albeit under strict restrictions - planned to nominate almost 8,000 members as independent candidates. Only 498 managed to register and no more than 20 actually made it past the approval of the electoral commission.

Henchmen
Although obstacles to becoming a candidate may have been in the path of all opposition parties, they particularly concentrated on hampering the fundamental but non-violent Muslim Brotherhood. Any Muslim Brothers wanting to become a candidate were picked up or had their way blocked to the registration office by hired henchmen. Others were not able to obtain the required proof of a clean criminal record from the police or were arrested on the spot. In many cases, the electoral commission simply refused to accept the registration form. Court rulings that the Muslim Brothers should be allowed onto the list of candidates were simply ignored by the Interior Ministry.

Human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have voiced their protests against the situation. They call the way the regime has tried to secure its success in the elections "shameless".

Ally
Even Washington - usually a faithful ally of Mubarak's regime - severely criticised the wave of arrests.

"We are concerned about the continuing campaign of arrests of individuals who oppose the current government and who are involved in the local elections"

declared Dana Perino, spokesperson for the White House last month.

According to Mohamed Habieb, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the regime fears a repeat of the parliamentary elections at the end of 2005, in which the Muslim Brothers won almost 20 percent of the seats. The local council elections were due to be held a few months later but were postponed indefinitely. "The NDP knows it will lose to the Muslim Brotherhood in a fair competition."

Poverty
The insecurity of the regime is understandable given the mass dissatisfaction among ordinary people. In spite of an economic growth of 7 percent and increasing investment, conditions for the poor have not improved. Almost 40 percent of Egyptians have to live on two US dollars a day or less. While the government insists inflation is only 12 percent, food prices have actually increased by 50 percent in three months, according to United Nations World Food Programme figures.

Last week, the threat of bread riots forced the president to order the army to bake bread and to increase the number of outlets. Plans to reform a fifty-year old subsidy system have been put on ice because of fears of popular fury.

Strikes
Last Sunday, the whole of the country's security forces appeared to have been mobilised because opposition groups called for national strikes and demonstrations. All strike action was immediately suppressed. There has been industrial unrest throughout Egypt for over a year. Many factory workers earn no more than 35 euros per month. They are demanding that the national minimum wage which has been remained the same at 4.25 euros since 1984 is increased to 145 euros per month.

Source: Radio Netherlands