By Safaa Abdoun
CAIRO: Political powers and analysts agreed that Sunday’s bloody clashes are an impediment to the democratic process, especially with the parliamentary elections approaching.
The election committee will accept nominations for parliamentary candidates for both the People’s Assembly and Shoura Council, who will submit their documents through branches of Egypt’s appeals court.
“Sunday’s violence was aimed at obstructing the road to democracy and thwarting the revolutions’ goals,” Mohamed El-Beltagy, head of the Cairo chapter of the Freedom and Justice Party, explained
He added that the country cannot succumb to the pressure and should go ahead with swift elections.
“We are in need of a strong state to address these issues,” he said.
Clashes between protesters and army forces turned fatal on Sunday, leaving at least 25 dead and 330 injured, according to Egypt’s health ministry, as violence escalated in central Cairo and the toll continued rising.
Clashes also broke out outside the hospital where the injured were taken.
Essam Shiha, member of Al-Wafd’s higher committee, called for postponing the upcoming elections until the security forces regain their power, otherwise he anticipated the “worst elections in Egypt’s history.”
“Having elections that are based on the closed proportional lists system and individual candidates’ system, whose main characteristic is thuggery, in the current situation and security vacuum we’ll have to expect lots of bloodshed,” he said.
“What happened [on Sunday] in terms of attacking the army, which is the backbone of the country’s security at the moment, indicates that these people will create chaos and we won’t have the transparent, fair and peaceful elections we want,” Shiha explained.
El-Beltagy maintained that Sunday’s clashes were not a result of sectarian strife.
“This is political thuggery that has nothing to do with Muslims or Christians, just creating chaos and impeding the road to democracy,” he said.
“The solution to end this chaos is building state institutions that are capable of handling these problems,” said Mohamed El-Beltagy, head of the Cairo chapter of the Freedom and Justice Party.
El-Beltagy explained that by state institutions he was referring to an elected parliament, government and president.
He added that drafting a constitution is also necessary.
Abdel Aleem Mohamed, analyst at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the current atmosphere in Egypt makes it very difficult for normal life to resume, let alone hold elections.
“Whoever is behind the violent clashes is intent on cutting the road to democracy in Egypt,” he said, “This is just an example of what they might do and it took place in the heart of the capital, so what about Upper Egypt or any of the provinces?”
Mohamed believes that the heart of the problem lies in the absence of the law and the authority of the state.
“People are not penalized for breaking the law, instead the government negotiates with them, this leniency in dealing with the violent forces is extremely dangerous,” he explained.
Mohamed said that it’s unlikely that people would shun Islamist parties in the elections due to Sunday’s clashes since they were all quick to react and condemn the violence.
