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Boycott fervour in Cairo

EGYPT’S POLITICAL canvas is getting messy. The decision by the National Salvation Front, the country’s main opposition group, to boycott parliamentary elections is likely to jump start an agitation campaign, which will lead to more uncertainty and chaos.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and the leading face of Egypt opposing Muslim Brotherhood’s rule, has called for postponing the proposed elections terming them as unfair and unqualified under the present regime. The country, which has been wracked by political tensions for months, cannot afford to see continued instability and that too at the cost of law and order and the economy. Hundreds have died in sporadic violence across the country, who had been voicing their anger at the rise of Islamists. The economy, especially the robust tourism sector, has of late taken a nosedive and its impact is evident across the board. In such a terse environment, the ensuing confrontation could prove to be too costly.

The opposition’s boycott has, in fact, come hours ahead of the start of a ‘national dialogue’ called for by President Mohammed Mursi to find ways to ensure the transparency and integrity of the vote. This development suggests that there is a huge trust deficit between the government and the opposition parties, and there isn’t any valve of interaction between them. The problem is that with the judiciary and the army also nurse grievances with the elected dispensation and are in no mood to come into play to ensure a patch-up. The judges are so estranged that they had opted to boycott the supervision of referendum held earlier to vet a draft constitution, saying it is lopsided in essence. To what extent can the same judiciary be expected to come to the rescue of the Brotherhood government’s held elections is anybody’s guess, as it had itself dissolved the constituent assembly in June last year citing some of the electoral laws as ultra vires.

The NSF’s claim that there can be no elections without a law that guarantees the fairness of the electoral process is debatable. The reason is it could have opted to become a party in the government-conducted dialogue and put forth its views and demands in a forthcoming manner. Merely boycotting of polls and the path of dialogue will neither serve party nor national interests. The point is the NSF and the like by boycotting the elections are conveniently turning the duel into one between the Islamist parties — largely fought between the Brotherhood and the conservative Salafist Nur. How effectively the Front’s intention to delegitimise the polls will work is difficult to guess, as the government enjoys a mandate under the referendum-approved draft constitution to hold parliamentary elections. The opposition’s demand for changing the electoral laws, formation of a unity interim government and amendments to the new constitution will be hard nut to crack. Some in-between ground should be explored to defuse the crisis instantly.