AFTER YEARS in the deep freeze, Egypt’s newly thawed-out political scene might best be likened to a three-ring political circus — one each for the three leading political parties, complemented by at least seven sideshow acts. Together, they offer a heady cocktail of drama, tension and giggles unlikely to disappoint.

If you’re looking for a good laugh, make certain to get a ticket to see Ahmed El-Sabahi, head of Al-Ummah Party and one of the ten presidential candidates allowed onto ballots last month by the Presidential Election Commission. Why El-Sabahi? What other candidate would urge voters to cast their ballots for the incumbent, President Hosni Mubarak, saying that if they can’t, they’re always welcome to vote for him? And what is El-Sabahi offering voters who cast their ballots for him? Well, a tarboush (fez), for starters: The Ummah Party chief would have it return as required dress for the nation’s adult men.

We can hear the tarboush makers — all two or three of them — making campaign contributions now. Why the tarboush? It’s part of Egypt’s national identity, says El-Sabahi, undeterred by those who pointed out last month that it was, in fact, a Turkish invention. “So what?” he declared. “Egyptians are originally Turkish.”

Next up is the fearless Dr. Refaat Al-Agroudy, head of Al-Wifaq Al-Qawmy Party, a man his supporters say can jump through flaming hoops without batting an eyelash. Al-Agroudy is so fired up that he not only promises to build a nuclear weapon if elected, but also swears that his administration would establish an “Arab Nuclear City” to serve as a home to nuclear scientists from all over the Arab world. Unsurprisingly, Arab nationalism and unity are the hallmarks of his campaign.

Are voters buying Al-Agroudy’s rhetoric? It seems not: Even his wife, he admits, plans to vote for Mubarak.

Then there is Dr. Fawzi Ghazal, head of the Misr 2000 party (who arrived on the scene just five years late), who cast himself last month in the role of lion tamer — when he wasn’t working with fish and camels, that is. Among other things, Ghazal’s campaign has emphasized fish and camels as the core of an economic policy he says will take care of unemployment, the poor and most other economic issues in one fell swoop. With bodies of surface water that include the Nile, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, Ghazal says, fish could become Egypt’s national wealth, turning the nation into a leading global exporter of brain food under his presidency. Even as we begin farming camels as a source of meat under his administration, Ghazal would capitalize on the nation’s fishing economy by building new cities along the coasts — an ambitious project that he thinks could employ the unemployed and bring the domestic price of fish down to LE 3 per kilogram.

Associated Press

(For bios and campaign summaries of each of the 10 candidates approved to run last month by the PEC, see page 92.)

The men the nation’s scribes dubbed the “serious contenders” occupy the circus’s three main rings. Al-Ghad Party head Ayman Nour, who will face charges of forgery when his trial resumes later this month whether he wins or not, has promised that if elected, he will stay in office just two years instead of the statutory six. After abolishing all laws violating human rights and restricting freedoms — as well as enacting legislation to free political detainees, lower taxes and trim the government bureaucracy — Nour promises to form an elected committee to draft a new constitution that would give every citizen the right to form a political party or start a newspaper of their very own. Having turned the nation into utopia, he would call for elections in September 2007.

Dr. Noaman Gomaa, head of Al-Wafd Party, wriggled his way out of a pledge to boycott this month’s elections (along with Al-Tagammuah and the Nasserist Party) to quickly become the odds-on favorite for a second-place finish. Gomaa, who heads the nation’s oldest opposition party, launched a full-fledged campaign with the slogan “We’ve Had It!”

But the ringmaster at center stage last month was President Hosni Mubarak, who not only faced campaigning as a true candidate for the first time, but did so by adopting the attitude and trappings of a true candidate. After announcing his candidacy in the auditorium of his old high school, Mubarak embraced a campaign filled with slick paraphernalia and even slicker campaign ads, town hall meetings, carefully crafted photo ops, a campaign bus and even a clear, detailed policy platform — all as part of a strategy carefully crafted by the Young Turks of his governing National Democratic Party’s Policies Secretariat.

As critics grumble that the election’s results are a foregone conclusion, the best thing for audience and performers alike is to relax and enjoy the show. In this, the first democratic presidential campaign period in Egypt’s history, the ultimate fun is not in the destination, but in the road we take to get there.

Associated Press

Eggs and tomatoes make more than good omelets — they’ve been effective propaganda tools throughout Egypt’s political history. Lobbed in the last century at politicians whose speeches fell short of expectations, eggs and tomatoes have since found their way into the nation’s history books as angry citizens in the grip of poverty realized that throwing them was a luxury they could no longer afford. It was simply a waste of food.

Smart politicians took their cues and started to play on the element of hunger in citizens’ lives and whet the voters’ political appetites to go vote for them. In no time, it became common practice, particularly in parliamentary elections, to see candidates or their partisans roaming electoral districts with boxes of rice, sugar and sometimes gateaux (a page from Marie Antoinette’s book, perhaps?) to lure potential voters to the polls — and cast their ballots appropriately.

Until last month, no such tactic was truly necessary to entice voters to cast their ballots for a particular candidate for the presidency, because there were no candidates in the real sense of the word, only a Yes/No ballot on the single individual hand-picked by parliament. Last month, for the first time in the country’s political life, public squares were filled with posters and banners declaring support for candidates other than the incumbent.

While Al-Tagammuah and the Nasserists continued their boycott of the contest in protest of the constitutional amendment that they claim makes it virtually impossible for independents and heads of opposition parties to run for elections in the future, other national forces are extolling the virtues of the historic event.

Mohsen Allam Presidential candidate Wahid El-Oksoriblames the country’s rampant corruption on capitalism.

Even the banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood got into the act, reversing its boycott of the constitutional referendum as it released a statement declaring that it was a religious duty for observant Muslims to vote in September’s poll. The Brotherhood stopped far short of endorsing a particular candidate, but it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of Al-Ghad’s Nour, who had an hour-long meeting with Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mahdi Akef and other members of the Guidance Office, Al-Ikhwan’s top leadership body.

Nour was photographed performing the noon prayer with Akef and Deputy Guide Mohamed Habib, among others. After the meeting, Akef seemed pleased as he told reporters, “Nour has presented his election platform, which emphasizes the right of the Muslim Brotherhood to form a political party and acquire a media platform.”

As for the average citizen? He or she has been cornered into a somewhat tight spot, forced to choose for the next six years between his fuul sandwich — with which he’s quite familiar and comfortable — and dishes he’s never heard of before. Before this summer of political change, few voters could name most of the opposition parties now vying for their votes, let alone name their chiefs.

Come September 7, voters will not only need to know their names, but will have probably had to have looked into their electoral platforms to see whether they offer more than reviving the tradition of the tarboush or the building of an Arab Nuclear City.

More importantly, they’ll have to decide which candidates seem capable of turning their promises into realities.

Associated Press The Egyptian nation is avidly following developments of the first-ever presidential campaigns

But why, some ask, should we trust our votes to any of them? Al-Wafd’s Gomaa summed it up in his media campaign: “Itkhanaqna!” Many are looking for change. Whatever it may bring, it can’t be worse than the current situation, advocates of the call claim. Others play on the ‘safety net’ theory: Who needs an unproven quantity to let loose his political experiments on the nation, especially in these critical times?

It goes without saying that many of the opposition candidates have never even been in the political decision-making kitchen — a place where until recently only the NDP’s chefs have been doing the slicing and dicing.

So we wondered: Who are these would-be chefs? What are they promising us — and how did they work to get that message across last month?

You don’t have to love poetry to appreciate the poetry of Wahid El-Oksori, head of the Misr Al-Arabi Al-Ishtraki Party (Egyptian-Arab Socialist Party). His colloquial poem Ishterakya karamet umma, rasmaleya malhash zemma (Socialism: the Dignity of a Nation, Capitalism With No Conscience or Guarantee).

Associated Press A man follows President Hosni Mubarak’s campaign on television.

El-Oksori’s poem lists the evils of capitalism, which the presidential candidate claims has bred millions of thieves who have “stolen the money of the poor.” It speaks of “justice boats” that have been drifting away from the Egyptian shores and, in a nutshell, summarizes both his policy platform and his approach to campaigning:

Socialism is sufficiency, justice, faith in God, freedom.

We have to plant, harvest, build, manufacture, protest being handcuffed to the chains of slavery.

Come on Mahmoud, and you Boutros, let’s build our national unity.

We have already seen how privatization has sold the people’s public property for the sake of precious America, putting an end to our Egyptian dreams.

Mohsen Allam Talaat El-Sadat was disqualified by the Presidential Election Commission after his Al-Ahrar Party couldn’t agree on who would stand as its candidate.

Those who raise the banner of liberalism are in fact the millionaires who fight against equality and moderation.

Our constitution is all about socialism, but our actions center around capitalism — imposed on us by the American cowboys.

Never believe the liars who want to defame socialism by claiming it’s Marxism (communism), when it’s purely divine instruction and moderate principles.

Our socialism is not Western, not Eastern, it is based on Islamic concepts.

Egyptians! It’s haram to give in to slavery, to be mere followers, so make up your minds and let’s revive our historical glory — and fight for freedom.

Amr Nabil Camaign staff packboxes of NDP T-shirts a day before the beginning of Mubarak’s presidential campaign.

That poem, El-Oksori explains, is one of his most effective propaganda tools. But if you’re not into poetry, then maybe music? This candidate has a bit of everything for everyone. Lately, he’s been busy producing 1,000 cassette tapes with a cocktail of old songs that praise his ideology. Approaching the campaign period as a conductor, El-Oksori invokes images of our early national leaders calling for the end of British occupation, his words breathing fire at the enemy and bringing glory to the ummah.

Although a single reporter was his only audience in his isolated Nile Tower party headquarters, he didn’t spare his vocal cords as he thundered his point across. Perhaps he was merely rehearsing for his upcoming campaign swing through Mansoura.

Political analysts have their reservations about El-Oksori. Most wrote last month that with the exception of Al-Wafd, the old-time political player, and Al-Ghad, the brash and controversial newborn, no party contesting this month’s poll stands a chance of posting a reasonable showing against the NDP’s Mubarak.

Despite his convictions, El-Oksori knows he stands a slim chance, if any, of making it in the elections. But that doesn’t mean he accepts the fact, explaining that while his group is perceived as insignificant and marginal by today’s analysts, his was once the ruling party under Nasser. Had it not been for Sadat’s dictatorship, as he calls it, and the former president’s decision to freeze the party for 18 years, the Egyptian-Arab Socialists would be the talk of the town today.

Instead, a poll one week into the campaign period conducted by the government-funded Nile Center for Electoral Studies showed El-Oksori would pull in 2.3 percent of the vote if the election had been held on August 25, a tie with Mamdouh Qenawi (Al-Dostour Al-Igtima’i) and El-Sabahi’s Ummah Party. Fully 29.5 percent of voters would cast their ballots for Gomaa and the Wafd, while 9.1 percent would back Nour’s Al-Ghad candidacy. Mubarak, the poll suggested, could count on 54.4 percent, while some 89.2 percent of respondents said that regardless of how they planned to vote, they expected Mubarak to win.

Holding the Egyptian Constitution in his hand, El-Oksori waves it under my nose as he angrily wonders “Have you — Egyptians — ever read your own constitution? Definitely not. If only we did, we could have changed our own destinies! My first step when elected is to apply, not change, the constitution. Economic reforms are listed right there, but the regime is turning a blind eye — and worse, violating — its own constitution. Article 4 states that the economic system of Egypt is a socialist-democratic one, yet we’re applying a capitalist, Open Door Policy that calls for privatization. The regime is blatantly selling public property even though Article 24 stipulates that the people — as in you and me — control the means of production. We’re just following the prescriptions of the US and the IMF, both of which interfere in our internal affairs in the form of funds.

“And the worse is still to come: Imagine that Egypt, once a major wheat producer, is now importing wheat from the US. Why? Because that’s what foreign powers dictate. So instead of sponsoring our own farmers, we’re sponsoring American farmers,” El-Oksori shouts, his eyes bulging.

“Nasser had the courage to say no to the foreign powers when it involved the future of something as major as the High Dam. Now, we can’t say no to the minor things. I’m not siding with Nasser, I’m siding with an ideology: the dignity of a nation. But don’t get me wrong! We believe in the private and public sector alike, but the private sector should fall under the supervision of the public sector, it should produce basic commodities we need, like the bread loaf, not Chipsy [the popular brand of potato chips].”

El-Oksori, whose slogan is “Rebuilding the Egyptian Citizen,” is the first to admit that “some people would groan that I’m taking them back to the old days of Socialism. But don’t you agree that whenever we talk about the past, we usually talk about the good old days? We’ve never suffered from poverty, social, health, environmental ills as badly as we do today. Besides, Socialism isn’t the Revolution’s invention — it’s an Islamic concept introduced during the times of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his caliph Omar ibn El-Khattab, and is based on high production and fair distribution.”

El-Oksori frowns at the lack of social justice in Egypt, stating that the gap among social classes is widening and citizens are far from having equal chances in today’s society. “We hear about a public employee who steals LE 10 and gets jailed, and a private businessman who steals LE 10 million and gets away with it. What sort of a corrupt society is this?”

The end result as he sees it: apathetic citizens. “Many citizens are no longer loyal to this country. It’s commonplace these days for people to give their backs to major issues that affect their destinies and future, like the elections, announcing they want to have nothing to do with politics. Instead, they’re set and focused only on earning their daily bread. And while the average citizen is getting poorer each passing day, we have a handful of big fishes who control the destiny of the majority through their billions.”

But it’s not only El-Oksori who sees the Egyptian citizen as “devastated, crushed, dysfunctional, and in serious need of fixing.” Most, if not all, of the candidates (except for the NDP candidate, for obvious reasons) play at the edges of the same idea. A glance at last month’s papers gives a clear indication of the gap: The NDP’s campaign takes “Leadership — and Building a Bridge to the Future” as its slogan. In slickly produced television commercials and newspaper ads, voters are treated to farmers smiling into the camera, clean and healthy girls from the countryside giggling, young workers heading to their factories with serious looks on their faces. It’s enough to make you feel things couldn’t get better — except that they actually can, with the president’s new agenda and his determination to finish what he started.

Flip to the centerfold to find Al-Wafd’s ad, portraying a cross-section of an angry nation proclaiming that they’ve had enough, pictures of long queues of breadlines, a miserable child who looks like he was never introduced to soap, staring in despair from behind a wall, with headlines stating, “We’ve had it with promises and words Nothing changes These are our social problemsand here are our practical solutions. Come on, people! Let’s seriously change Egypt.”

Gomaa gives the credit for his “Itkhanaqna” slogan to his campaign managers, who are also leading members of Al-Wafd. “It’s an expression that sums up the Egyptian citizen’s suffering. When we say ‘We’ve had it’, we’re talking about poverty, unemployment, poor services, slow development — all of which, by the way, is an accumulation of negative decisions made by different regimes, not a single one in particular. We’re not pointing fingers here,” Gomaa says.

“Yet it can’t be that the military institution is the one that still governs us today just because president Mohamed Naguib was an army officer,” the Wafd leader continues. “Then came Gamal Abdel Nasser, another officer, followed by Sadat, then his vice president Mubarak. We aspire to move to a new era whereby the final word is for the people and civil society. This requires that people take an active part in the political process. We can no longer tolerate being ruled by a single leader who has all the powers in his hand, and whereby our ministers still parrot the same words according to the directives of the president. We’ve really had it,” Gomaa says.

It seems Gomaa has inspired his colleagues in the presidential race: In no time, Dr. Osama Shaltout, head of the Al-Takaful (Solidarity) Party came out at a press conference to state that if Gomaa raises the slogan of “Itkhanaqna,” he’s rallying his troops to the slogan of “Haram!” stressing that it’s wrong for someone other than himself win the elections.

Why? If not because he promised to solve the unemployment problem in one year, then maybe because he belongs to Al-Ashraf, as Shaltout claims, the descendants of the Prophet’s family. Counting on Al-Ashraf votes, our man has been printing a copy of his family tree to give out along with his program. And what else does that program involve? If nothing else, he has promised to appoint Al-Ahly football favorite Mahmoud El-Khatib as the new Minister of Championships; Al-Wafd supremo Noaman Gomaa as Minister of Justice; and Al-Tagammuah head Refaat El-Said as Minister of Culture.

Should he not live up to all of his campaign promises, Shaltout says, he should be impeached and then jailed for a term of no less than three and no more than seven years.

Playing to voters’ emotions is key in the 2005 elections, says Dr. Mona Al-Hadidi, the Dean of Faculty of Media at International Academy for Media Science and a member of the Ministry of Information Media Committee that set the rules for the presidential media campaign.

“There are trends we’ve been seeing as media experts here. Nothing shocking, though. Most candidates are playing on citizens’ suffering and frustration — Al-Wafd, for example, played on that quite well in its campaign — yet no one challenges or speaks to the voters’ minds. And in a campaign, one has to touch upon all aspects — be they economic, social, political or international. Your campaign shouldn’t be limited to one sect or class because you’re addressing the whole nation. You speak to people in villages, cities, slums — you want your message to get through to each and every one of them, educated and ignorant alike.

“Of the 10 candidates, only a handful proposed specific programs. Everyone will tell you ‘I’ll get rid of unemployment,’ but the real question is, ‘How?’ Only a few offered a strategy with guidelines and a timeline.”

Each candidate will be allowed to execute that strategy using up to 147 free hours of air time each on six of the nation’s state-funded television channels, and up to 54 hours of free time on state radio.

Gomaa’s strategy to wage war on unemployment is one example of a more concrete plan, however dubious some of its economic logic may be.

“We’ll devise and implement a labor market plan, whereby we examine the available job opportunities, and the number of graduates eligible for the job, so as to reach a compromise between supply and demand. Besides, we have to start using simple and medium-sized technologies that require heavy labor instead of resorting to high-tech projects that marginalize the human factor and eventually create unemployment. A project that takes two years using high-tech could be executed in three years using simple technology and more labor,” the Wafd candidate says.

Yet it’s true, as Al-Hadidi notes, that some candidates seem a little bit confused when using the word strategy. Mamdouh Qenawi, a presidential candidate and the head of Al Dostour Al-Igtima’i, is a case in point. Under the slogan “Going Back to Egypt,” Qenawi stresses that no political or economic wizard can solve Egypt’s problems given the current situation.

Before giving us his own formula, Qenawi wanted us to learn that Egyptians are still living with repercussions of the 1967 defeat — in fact, the occupation of Iraq, as he states, is yet another of its side effects.

“Sadat was aware that he had to take back the Sinai, otherwise he would have been kicked out of office. So, in order to liberate part of the land — a room that has been stolen — he rented out the whole Egyptian house to the Americans. Today, the Egyptian economy — plus the nation’s will and ability to make decisions — is bound by this past mistake, a mistake that turned us into followers living on American aid, not leaders.

“At the same time, we don’t have real capitalism or a free market — only a bunch of interest groups, a sort of mafia, who control the country and its policies. Sadat started this sad situation 30 years ago, and for the last 24 years, nothing changed. Eventually, we ended up with a poor, dependent economy, low development rates, and moral, ethical and social deterioration. The victim of our politics is the Egyptian citizen. We have exhausted already poor citizens with this crazy consumer craze with which they can’t compete — buy this mobile, do this, do that, then we wonder how come the role models for our youth have become Amr Diab and Ruby.”

As most candidates do, Qenawi finds it easy to paint a gloomy picture of the present, but has few words to offer when it comes to painting a more attractive, more colorful future. He promises nothing short of “changing our reality” if elected by helping citizens regain their “confidence, personal skills, dignity and national pride.”

How? “By reviving our nationalism — and this isn’t mere fiction or rosy promises,” he reassures us.

Pressed for specifics, Qenawi blames slow progress not on the population boom, but rather believes that “more people translates into more power.” Goodbye, family planning campaigns: “They complain about the population boom, when this is one of our biggest assets. In fact, this is what’s keeping the Jews from attacking us. Why did they leave Gaza now? Because there are more people being born there who’re willing to become human bombs. If the government had full-fledged projects that truly improved education, industry, and health, our population — which they use as an excuse for their failure, and always say they can barely feed and educate — could have turned into a productive, creative force, like China and India.”

Qenawi stresses that what sets him apart from other candidates is the fact that he has a long-term strategy. He won’t divulge the details, but says it revolves around rebuilding Egypt from scratch, and — believe it or not — in phases.

“This regime adopts the strategy of musical chairs: They move the problems from one generation to another. They offer aspirin for our headaches, but never treat the reason behind them. Let’s take the US as an example. It has its own explicit strategy: to rule the world single-handedly. What about Egypt? We have no strategy. And other than our party, no one has focused on it despite its importance in establishing a miracle economy, and turning us into a major power.”

Thankfully, Qenawi has something other than his mysterious long-term ‘strategy’ to offer.

“To dissolve the centralization of power, I suggest that we divide Egypt horizontally, turning it into eight provinces in federal-like form, as is the case in Germany. Then, we’ll have instant solutions for our immediate problems. First, we’ll amend the constitution so that the president doesn’t monopolize the decision-making process. And just like some are educated at AUC, I want the average Egyptian citizen to acquire all the qualities of free education that encourage critical thinking, not the one dependent on parroting and memorizing. Education is the backbone of development — we know that much. Believe me, we have a prescription to fix it all. A program that dictates comprehensive reform with specific mechanisms for implementation. Besides, we’ll have a social philosophy to improve the quality of life, and fight the cultural and social deterioration, like the rise of the divorce rate that we’re witnessing these days.”

As he speaks, Qenawi tells of an idea still unpolished in his mind, a terminology to frame his vision: “We want all Egyptians sheltering under the umbrella of a social guarantee — a kind of insurance system. We want to have a welfare state that fulfils the needs of the middle and lower classes. This umbrella would deliver all the basic services for the citizen. It would offer good housing with parks, and architectural harmony. Instead of paying for private lessons and schools, you can pitch into the new system that would take care of education, health, and even entertainment in return for a membership fee. The minimum of this service would secure a decent living. I would dedicate a good part of the state budget to fund this national project, as well as opening the doors for banks and investment companies to take part. This is an ambitious project, but not impossible.

“If you don’t mind, let me know if you find a similar idea, or something against it, while surfing the net.”

(It seems Qenawi already did his homework himself. Shortly after our interview, he settled on “The ‘citizen’ or ‘poor’ bank,” Egyptianizing the Malaysian experience. As his program states, the bank or organization would act much like a holding company that funds various projects, and whose capital comes from banks, investment funds and the government.)

Away from internal affairs, our candidates share their unique vision on how they’ll formulate our foreign policies, if they make it to office. Qenawi stresses the importance of Egypt’s foreign policies in his program, promising drastic changes — and careful, unlike many, to differentiate himself from his competitors at the ballot box and elsewhere in the political spectrum.

“Foreign policies dramatically affect the local ones. There was a time when we used to follow the Eastern power, as in Moscow, then we turned West. Today, I announce that we’ll follow from now on Egypt’s one and only interest. What sets us apart is the fact that we look into the past only to gain experiences, but we don’t live in it, like the Nasserites, nor are we hypnotized by the [dream] of the Muslim Brotherhood, which wants an Islamic caliphate. Our special relationship with the US won’t be severed. We’re not calling for an isolationist policy, but to deal with others from a strong, not weak position. We love the Americans, we love the American movies and trends, but we don’t love the American administration. This administration not only hurts our and other nations’ interests, but also the American interests in the long run and can destroy the whole planet.

“In our program, we listed that if the West made scientific progress that we can’t compete with, then we should try to complement their science with our spiritual, moral and ethical guidance. We call for the unity of humanity, unity of religions in face of the clash of civilizations.”

For his part, Al-Takaful’s Shaltout, who screams that his program and ideas have been stolen and copied by other parties, announced in his press conference that he has news for the US in case he wins. “I’m calling on the US to adopt Islam as a religion. If the US is calling us to adopt its democracy, then we invite it to adopt the peaceful pillars of our religion.”

With only 21 days to conduct their campaigns, the 10 candidates raced against time last month. The short time frame made it virtually impossible for them to roam all of the nation’s 26 governorates to meet citizens who may need to know if not more about them, then anything about them.

Talaat El-Sadat is a would-be candidate disqualified by the Presidential Election Commission after Mohammed Farid Zakaria, Helmi Salem and himself nominated themselves as Al-Ahrar Party’s candidates. Interviewed before he was disqualified (he has since thrown his support behind Ayman Nour), El-Sadat declares that “Twenty one days are enough for someone who knows he’ll win without lifting a finger. And because parties have become the job of the jobless these days, nobody — just go down on the streets of cities or villages to see for yourself — feels their presence, except for the NDP.

“And it’s not because it’s popular, but for a simple fact: It’s the government. It’s sort of infamous, though. People need a popular, not official, party,” complains the nephew of President Anwar Sadat.

To properly introduce themselves and build a rapport with the electorate, Al-Hadidi says candidates must place their best bets on state-run television, particularly given the nation’s relatively high rate of illiteracy. But even she admits that nothing is as effective as direct contact with potential voters.

“Candidates or their deputies should pursue face-to-face meetings with the public for [a] more serious effect,” she advises.

Easier said than done, as the candidates can tell you. Many question why the media has not previously played its national role in highlighting the activities and programs of the political parties — who, under the political parties act, should take part in the process of governing — marginalized them instead.

“You can’t blame the citizen for his ignorance about most of the political parties,” says El-Oksori. “You can’t blame us, either. For many years, we’ve been denied public forums to help us reach the citizens and spread our ideas and programs. We were kept only for the sake of the political decor the government was keen to have. And that’s it.”

Others are busy complaining about other facets of the same problem. Shaltout, for one, groans that he couldn’t hold some of his public conferences because a number of rental agencies didn’t want to rent him the equipment he needs to host a proper gathering. While Shaltout blames the NDP, others suggest it may have more to do with his party’s credit-worthiness, the LE 500,000 in campaign financing it accepted from the government notwithstanding.Al-Wafd, the daily newspaper of the party of the same name, accused bullies from the ruling party of tearing down posters in Al-Mahala.

Nevertheless, other than a complaint here and there, the campaign period was unfolding smoothly as we went to press. As Al-Hadidi says, “The presidential election is a totally new experience for candidates, voters and even the media — which is supposed to be the connection between the two. Abroad, the candidate isn’t the one who runs the campaign, there are institutions and whole organizations to run the show. In Egypt, we may have qualified people who’re capable of the job, but due to the novelty of the experience, we don’t have mature organizations experienced in putting the pieces together. Maybe some have previously organized campaigns on a smaller scale, but the presidential campaign is a different story.

“Thus, we see each candidate forming his team according to his own political experience and resources — maybe they’re professionals or amateur volunteers — and stacking their cards. Honestly, I believe that the campaign won’t come first, the personality of the candidate will. We’re people who are governed by emotions. Therefore, the credibility, reputation, popularity of the candidate would play a key role this time. When you bring up a name for the first time, a name people never heard of before, it’s completely different than raising names you’re familiar with. Whether the candidates have fair and equal chances among each other is a tough question. But I believe that this is an experience worthy of attention, and that each one should put his best face forward to rise to the challenge. You can’t get into this game with a defeatist attitude — why run in the first place?”

Many of the candidates are taking Al-Hadidi’s words right to the heart. While some are running their campaigns from large mansions, others are doing so from their houses or newly rented apartments. Some are resorting to traditional methods like pamphlets, billboards, signs and calendars, others are playing with technology — mobile phones and the internet. Some have started their own radio stations, renting cars or microbuses to roam the cities and villages publicizing their programs, while others, such as Nour’s team, started a telemarketing campaign whereby they call potential voters to inform them about their candidate’s program. The team hopes to persuade around 50,000 citizens to vote for their man using this method.

And while some have newspapers to get their message out each day or week, others are printing brochures, special publications — even stamping cassette tapes — to get their messages out.

But how much is all of this going to cost? Money, after all, is more than the icing on the cake — it’s the lifeblood of any election campaign, and doubly important when the presidency is in play. While two parties turned down the statutory LE 500,000 in state funding — the NDP and Al-Wafd — counting on their own funds and donations instead, the other eight candidates opened new bank accounts in the name of their candidate committees to sponsor their campaign.

For some, the money was a matter of “to be or not to be,” as in the case of Al-Ummah’s party leader, who delayed his program and campaign altogether until he received the cash — which wasn’t until the sixth day of the campaign. Forging ahead, a nonchalant El-Sabahi didn’t let the issue get to him and focused instead on informing the public about his plan to bring back ghafeer el-darak (patrol men in galabeyas) who would comb our streets as a strategy to combat terrorism.

While El-Sabahi was busy contemplating whether to change the pounds into euros — we kid you not — El-Oksori sadly admitted that he would be largely limited to spending the LE 500,000 doled out by the PEC, because he has no other source of funding.

“We’re not going to fool ourselves and claim we’ll depend on donations,” he says. “Let me tell you that our membership fees are never paid. People don’t trust political parties, so why would they give them their money? Besides, we don’t accept foreign donation, as others do. These are obstacles laid in our way, and the only benefactor is the NDP candidate who has the biggest share of the propaganda machinery. We know that we don’t have the resources or fair chances, but the election is a tool to help us spread the goals of our party and build a popular base. In case we win, which is impossible, we have a mechanism for implementation our ideas. Good ideas spread like wildfire.”

As for Qenawi, he’s still grumbling about the amount he’s been handed. “What’s LE 500,000 to fund a presidential campaign? They stipulated that five percent of the LE 10 million candidates are allowed for funding their campaign can come from donations. Of course, the big fishes that have special interests with the regime are the ones with the big money, and they’re interested in keeping the status quo. They have no interest whatsoever in us, especially since we call against corruption.

“However, we have our doors open for serious businessmen with national sense. Hopefully, we’ll contract with a media firm to make a short documentary about the party that could be put into the metro screens or movie theaters, if possible, and who knows.”

We do know this much: Watching President Mubarak’s documentary and ads was an interesting experience. Seeing the president and the first lady, whom the president describes as a low-maintenance wife, speaking about their first date, their children sitting in the trunk of the car, the president’s lament that he had to pursue his official duties while his son was flown to the US for surgery, though moving, was late in coming, but all the more interesting for it.

Not even the most partisan analyst can downplay the strength of the president’s well-devised campaign. He had concrete figures and numbers for voters. He promised 4 million job opportunities in six years, as well as a 100 percent salary increase for employees of modest backgrounds and 75 percent increase for other ranks. More interestingly, Mubarak pushed the right buttons, promising like many of the other candidates to abolish the emergency law, replacing it with a new anti-terrorism law, the social attorney general (prosecutor), and the moral court.

Mubarak has also outlined clear foreign, economic and social policies, emphasizing strong Arab and African ties in addition to our traditionally strong ties to Europe and North America; additional constitutional reforms; a comprehensive plan to boost agricultural production; a new export-promotion scheme; and plans to create new jobs and finance micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.

And unlike some of his rivals, Mubarak had, at press time, run an exceptionally clean campaign. “The president’s campaign,” says campaign spokesman Mohammed Kamal Eddin, “makes no mention of rival candidates or any shortcomings in their programs.”

Yet the strengths of the NDP’s campaign has been perceived as weakness by other candidates, particularly Al-Ghad’s Nour, who at a press conference had this to say: “I feel like we have a role reversal. The NDP is playing along with the opposition’s rules now, calling for and promising the abolition of the emergency law and all other laws that used to violate freedom and human rights — as if they’re not the ones who were safeguarding these same laws while we were screaming our lungs out to put an end to them.”

The young candidate has promised the nation that if he wins, he’s not going to stay in power the six years. Instead, he’ll act as a transitional president for the coming two years whereby he, along with a strong team, would set the political and economic strategies on the right track. Then he’ll go home and get ready for the real elections in September 2007.

Nour’s program includes abolishing the emergency law, setting free those in detention “for their political beliefs,” leaving the door wide open for citizens to start newspapers and political parties, restructuring the national newspapers to be independent from the state, and electing a committee to formulate a new constitution.

And believe it or not, Nour won’t even leave his home in Zamalek if he were to become the next president.

“Why would I? Forget about the Presidential Palace!” he says. “I can go there to assume my responsibilities as a public employee. At the end of the day, I would go back home. Besides, I will ask for minimal security — less than what our ministers have. Why would I have tanks or the army guarding me when I’m elected by the people? I have nothing to fear.”

Those are the exact same words his now-backer Talaat El-Sadat offered me when I interviewed him before he was disqualified, and we had a bet whether he would stick to his words if he got elected. Now, we’ll have to see whether Nour’s words will come true if he does take up office.

While many a voter sees that all the candidates stand a slim chance against Mubarak, experts says miracles can happen.

“It’s not impossible. We have a high illiteracy rate, and the whole experience is new for us all. I believe that some simple-minded people would be misled by some of the rosy promises, and follow the least expected candidates. Many don’t have the sophistication to discuss with the candidate the mechanism to implement the program. Whether he can do it or not isn’t the issue for them. This time, the votes won’t go for one person, there will be votes going for different people for different reasons, and we have to accept that,” says Al-Hadidi.

Sounds good to El-Sabahi: “It’s my right to dream of become the president, at least during election time. This is legitimate. And some say, if Ahmed Negad made it in Iran, why wouldn’t Ahmed El-Sabahi make it in Egypt?”

Even El-Oksori isn’t as pessimistic as he first appeared.

“We’re so sincere in our effort, despite the financial limitation. The election is a historic experience — it can be our only chance since we’re exempted from the conditions only this time. We have to have 23 members of parliament from our party [5 percent of the seats] during the next election [to be guaranteed the right to field a candidate without obtaining nomination papers signed by 250 local council members and parliamentarians] which is impossible given the circumstances we live in these days. Not Al-Wafd, not Al-Tagammuah, no one can make it. So why don’t we exploit the chance now? At least we can get to the streets and inform citizens about us, our goals and agenda, without being seriously harassed. Maybe, we’ll gain more followers.

“As a matter of fact, after our Mansoura conference, around 553 citizens joined our party. We’ll roam around eight governorates — Assiut is our bet. We won’t sleep, we will camp in the streets. We’ll try our best, as hopeless as we are, to establish communication channels with citizens. You know God used to change the face of the earth with one person. One prophet. He used to support him with His power and victory. If only we believe in this, we could change the whole world.”

We don’t need to change the whole world. Enshrining Egypt as a presidential democracy would be more than enough — at least for the seventh of September. et