Islamists to push for stricter code in Egypt

EGYPT’S ultra-conservative Islamist party said yesterday it plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming surprisingly strong gains in this week’s initial round of voting for parliament, the first polls since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

Egypt’s election commission announced only a trickle of results yesterday and said 62% of eligible voters cast ballots in the highest turnout in Egypt’s modern history. Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, head of High Election Commission, jokingly described it as “the highest since the time of pharaohs”.

Preliminary counts leaked by judges and individual political groups indicated the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm took the largest share of votes.

Following closely behind, was the ultra-conservative Islamist Nour Party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc, according to unofficial counts.

That trend, if confirmed and if extended over more rounds of voting, would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military that took over from Mubarak, and ultimately reshape a key US ally.

The Islamist Nour Party expects to get 30% of the vote, party spokesman Yousseri Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. A strong showing would put them in a position to influence policy, although it’s unclear how much power the new parliament will have with the ruling generals still in overall control. For example, the military, which is not keen to see Egypt delivered to radical Islamists, maintains it will choose the prime minister and Cabinet once all parliamentary voting rounds are completed. It is also poised to oversee the drafting of a constitution.

The Nour Party’s purist pursuit of strict Shariah, or Islamic law, would also face tough opposition from a diverse array of youth activists in the streets, Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, as well as liberal and secular political parties pushing for more social and political freedoms.

The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hard-line Salafi movement, which was inspired by the Saudi-style Wahhabi school of thought.

Salafists are newcomers to Egypt’s political scene. They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man’s law to override God’s. But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak’s ouster to position themselves to try to make sure Shariah law is an integral part of Egypt’s new constitution.

The more moderate and pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, has been around since 1928 and has for decades been the largest and best organised opposition movement in Egypt, despite being officially outlawed until Mubarak’s ouster.