NEW LIBERAL POLITICAL PARTY APPROVED, AFFILIATED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 001682 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR WATERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/29/2017 TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL EG SUBJECT: NEW LIBERAL POLITICAL PARTY APPROVED, AFFILIATED MP EXPELLED FROM PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY REF: A. CAIRO 47 ¶B. 06 CAIRO 4612 ¶C. CAIRO 974 ¶D. 06 CAIRO 6600 Classified By: Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs Catherine Hill-Herndon, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Egypt's Political Parties Committee on May 24 approved the registration of the Democratic Front Party (DFP),a new liberal group led by prominent intellectuals Osama Al Ghazali Harb and Yehya Al Gamal. The party's broad goals for the next six months are to build a "nationwide institutional framework" and to party-build, engaging in outreach to the Egyptian public. The DFP will not participate in Egypt's upcoming June 11 Shura Council elections, but plans to contest the spring 2008 local council elections, the next event on the electoral calendar. Meanwhile, DFP-affiliated parliamentarian Anwar Esmat Al Sadat was expelled from the People's Assembly on May 29, due to a recent questionable court ruling declaring him bankrupt. The DFP's approval is a positive step by the GOE towards bolstering the currently weak array of liberal opposition parties. The test of the government's intentions will come in terms of whether the DFP is given significant space to operate and party-build over the next several months. End summary. -------------- APPROVAL OF THE PARTY "A SURPRISE" -------------- ¶2. (C) The May 24 approval of the Democratic Front Party (DFP) marked the first time since October 2004, when Ayman Nour's Al Ghad Party was licensed, that the heavy-handed Political Parties Committee (PPC) has approved a new Egyptian political party. The decision contrasts markedly with the January ruling of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court to deny the petitions of twelve aspiring political parties which were appealing the PPC's rejection of their applications (ref A). In a May 29 meeting, party founder Osama al-Ghazali Harb (Shura Council member, former NDP Policies Committee member, and editor-in-chief of "International Politics," Egypt's "Foreign Affairs" equivalent) told poloff that he was "surprised" by the approval, and believed that the PPC's decision was in large part due to lucky timing: "A week after Egypt becomes a member of the UN Human Rights Council, it would have looked very bad for the government to reject a new liberal party." (Note: Harb and Gamal first formally announced their intent to form a party in July 2006, as reported ref B. End note). ¶3. (C) Harb opined that the approval was also indicative of "a realization among some in the Egyptian elite that, due to the increasing strength of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB),there must be players on the political stage other than simply the MB and the ruling party." Harb asserted that 1700 Egyptians signed the DFP's petition for registration (far more than the 1000 signatures required by Egyptian law),and that the DFP's detailed platform was studied by the PPC for two weeks. He noted that the DFP's hearing before the PPC was "serious and intense," involving a disagreement between him and Minister of Interior Habib Al Adly regarding the DFP's recommendation that State Security be disbanded. -------------- PLANS FOR THE FUTURE -------------- ¶4. (C) Harb said that the DFP's leadership would meet on June 22 to choose, "by consensus," leadership for the party during "this transitional period, which should last 6-12 months, following which the party membership will formally elect its leadership." He predicted that Yehya Al Gamal, due to his age (77 years old) and senior status as a former minister of Administrative Affairs under the Sadat administration, would be the transitional president of the party, and Harb would be the vice-president. Harb characterized the overall mission of the DFP as "strengthening and revitalizing liberal democracy in Egypt," and noted that the party's five founding principles are: freedom, justice, citizenship, a civil state, and a strong Egyptian role in the Middle East. He noted his expectation that "the regime will doubtless try to box us in, or in the worst-case scenario, eviscerate us as they have done with Al Ghad. But we have no alternative .... We must try this and see where it leads." ¶5. (C) Harb said that the DFP's broad goals for the next six months are two-fold. The party will focus on building a CAIRO 00001682 002 OF 003 "nationwide institutional framework, with branches from Alexandria to Aswan .... Our aim is to construct a true institution, that does not depend on one or two men in the leadership, but a party that is functional as an organization." Simultaneously, Harb plans to "embark upon activities as a party, informing the public of our political and economic views." Harb asserted that he hopes to "make the party a forum, to discuss in a free way, the problems of contemporary Egyptian society." The DFP will not participate in Egypt's upcoming June 11 Shura Council elections, as the party was approved after the May 20 deadline for nominating candidates. Harb said that the DFP will "enthusiastically" contest the spring 2008 local council elections, the next event on Egypt's electoral calendar. He noted that the DFP also needs to concentrate on fund-raising activities over the next several months: "Naguib Sawiris (Egyptian billionaire businessman) has given us 200,000 LE (roughly 35,000 USD), but that is not enough to build a party, so we will need to reach out to others." ¶6. (C) When queried as to whether the U.S. can be helpful to the DFP, Harb said that "the best thing the U.S. can do for us, and for all democrats in Egypt, is to provide public rhetorical support to our cause. Do not say 'everything is ok' in Egypt, and overlook the regime's abuses. Speak up for democracy!" Harb was also interested "theoretically" in the possibility of younger members of the party participating in off-shore training provided by NDI or IRI, but was concerned about drawing negative press attention. He noted that he would like to meet with NDI's country director for Egypt, and perhaps, "a few months from now, in a transparent way" attempt some training for youth affiliated with the DFP. -------------- MEANWHILE, DFP-AFFILIATED MP EXPELLED FROM PARLIAMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) On May 29, acting upon a May 26 recommendation of the parliamentary Ethics Committee, the People's Assembly voted to strip Anwar Esmat Al Sadat (independent parliamentarian, and nephew of the former president) of his parliamentary seat, as a result of a recent court ruling declaring Sadat bankrupt, due to several bounced checks reportedly dating from 1993. Sadat, a first-term legislator representing a countryside district of Menufiyah province, who entered the People's Assembly after winning a seat in the 2005 parliamentary elections, has been a close contact of the Embassy for the past year. Sadat filed a request to the People's Assembly on May 27, asking for a two-week delay in the vote on his expulsion, until a court hearing was held in which he could challenge the ruling on his alleged bankruptcy. Sadat's request was disregarded, and the vote went forward, with a final tally of 316 MP's (all NDP) voting for Sadat's expulsion, and 80 MP's (independent and Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians) voting against it. Speaker Fathi Surour was quoted in Egyptian newspapers as stating that although he had received documentation showing that Sadat had repaid his debts, he could not overturn the expulsion. The MB's parliamentary bloc issued a statement noting, "This measure (against Sadat) is unjust, and taken with suspicious speed, without giving the MP the chance to get a court ruling that rehabilitates him." One MB MP, Hamdi Hassan, commented to reporters, that Sadat's experience is, "part of settling scores with the political opposition inside parliament. When MP's speak in the Pharaonic Hall, one single question is in the air - whose turn is it next time?" ¶8. (C) Sadat decided a few months ago to join the Democratic Front Party (ref C),and Harb's May 26 announcement that Sadat would be the DFP's "first MP" was covered prominently in independent Egyptian newspapers. Harb noted that Sadat's expulsion is "a blow to the party, as we were depending on him." According to Harb, the DFP is in negotiations with four other independent MP's, trying to convince them to join the party; however, "Sadat's experience may give them pause." Nonetheless, Harb asserted that he did not view Sadat's affiliation with the DFP as the main cause of Sadat's expulsion from parliament, noting that "there are many other reasons for Sadat's troubles." ¶9. (C) Sadat, a vocal critic of the recent constitutional amendments process and subsequent changes to the Political Rights Law, has been a frequent commentator on Egyptian satellite TV programs over the past several months, criticizing the GOE's efforts at political reform. He has also been featured as a speaker and panelist in several NGO workshops sponsored over the past several months, such as a recent IFES event at Cairo University on the new Supreme CAIRO 00001682 003 OF 003 Electoral Commission. In late April, Sadat engaged in a verbal altercation with independent MP Mustafa Al Bakry (the vociferously anti-American editor of the sensationalist "Al Osboa" weekly newspaper),which climaxed with an on-air exchange of accusations of illicit financial deals and forgery, and Bakry asserting that the Sadat family has a "business relationship with Israel." According to press reports, Bakry subsequently vowed to file a request with the Illicit Gains Authority, asking that it investigate Sadat's finances. ¶10. (C) In an e-mail message sent to the Ambassador, poloff and other foreign diplomats in Cairo, Sadat highlighted the fast action to expel him from parliament, contrasted with the slow procedures utilized with NDP MP's facing similar disciplinary action. Sadat wrote, "Hopefully there will be a chance soon to run for a new election, although I foresee that the general tendency of the government will not stop at this stage of my expulsion, but that there is a possibility of the government escalating matters further by providing additional convictions, which will lead to my imprisonment with no rights." Sadat has been reported in the Egyptian press as saying that what has happened to him is "a political decision aimed at liquidating the Sadat family." (Note: Sadat's brother Talaat, also a parliamentarian, was sentenced in October by a military court to on year of hard labor, after a series of media appearances in which he accused military leaders and then-vice president Hosni Mubarak of masterminding a "conspiracy" resulting in the assassination of President Sadat (ref D). End note). -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶11. (C) The approval of the Democratic Front Party is welcome news, and a positive step by the GOE towards bolstering the currently weak array of liberal opposition parties. The test of the government's intentions will come in terms of whether the DFP is given significant space to operate and party-build over the next several months, or whether, as has been the experience of other opposition parties, the government will harass and intimidate new party members, not approve permits for party gatherings and demonstrations, and undertake other such discouraging measures. While the expulsion of Sadat from parliament does not appear to be a direct result of his membership in the DFP, it is nonetheless a clear signal to oppositionists, particularly MP's, of the government's power to exclude them from the political process. RICCIARDONE