The parliamentary elections law adopted on Monday included the presence of three women and three Coptic Christians on the electoral list, which caused controversy within the Salafist Nour Party.
The party in itself lacks the presence of Coptic members and its women members are from conservative families that refuse to be in the presence of men in the parliament.
Deputy of Salafi Dawa Yasser Burhami said that Nour Party formed a council to pick members that will participate in the parliamentary elections. He added that the party will run for elections for the single or the list systems, Burhami told Tahrir news on Monday.
Cheif deputy of the Nour Party presidential council Abdallah Badran said they object the new parliamentary elections law. The domination of the single system over the list system allows members of the Muslim Brotherhood and figures from former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime to be easily elected in the parliament, Badran told Tahrir news Monday.
Minister of Transitional Justice Mohamed Amin el-Mahdy met with some political powers representatives on Monday and they agreed on adding three women to the list system in addition to three Copts, Shorouk News reported Wednesday.
Yasser Burhami told al-Shrouk that three Copts per list is too much for the Nour Party to be able to provide and that the Copts on the list will have to be able to accept the party’s beliefs.
Burhami added that Nour Party has some Coptic members but they do not reach the needed number of candidates. He also said they will not have enough money for the electoral campaigns.
Nour Party is now negotiating with and searching for Coptic figures of competence in all Egyptian governorates to participate in the party’s electoral lists, Burhami told Shorouk.
He said that the party refuses the Women’s Quota and that it was “imposed” over them. He said that presence of seven women per list will cause problems because Salafi families will not accept to have their women together with men on the parliament.
Head of Nour Party Younes Makhyoun said the new parliamentary elections law will force the party to withdraw from the elections, according to Shorouk.
Makhyoun also added that the new parliamentary elections law will diminish parties’ role in Egypt’s political life and that it will not be in favor of the marginalized and poor.
“Any Coptic who becomes part of the Nour Party lists is an opportunist,” Coptic figure Gamal Assad Malak, who was previously on Al-Amal Party and the Freedom and Justice Party lists during the past parliamentary elections said, Shrouk reported.
Assad said when he was part of the Brotherhood lists, it was based on an electoral political program and not a religious point of view. He also thinks that Nour Party is a religious based party and should not be involved in the political scene.
Attempts to contact Nour Party head Younes Makhyoun and member Ashraf Thabet for comment were unsuccessful.
