Cairo Magazine - And they're off

When Ayman Nour traipsed into the arms of waiting supporters Wednesday night in Midan Attaba, traffic in downtown Cairo was already badly snarled. Police had cordoned off roads and closed the Salah Salem Tunnel to allow President Mubarak's motorcade to travel safely to Al Azhar Park, where he launched his own campaign with a carefully choreographed rally.

Within minutes of each other Wednesday night, Mubarak and Nour, the two candidates to watch in Egypt's first competitive presidential elections, began their campaigns. The two candidates' promised a similar gamut of standard of living improvements, and political reform, but the similarities stopped there.

While Nour is rolling up his sleeves, kissing babies, and shaking hands with street vendors, the Mubarak campaign is dealing with frustrated journalists' demands for a single press conference with the candidate.

Waving to onlookers from atop a horse drawn carriage, Nour led a raucous 1,000 person strong procession down Al Geish Street, to his party headquarters in Bab Al Shaariya. Tabla and mizmar players marched along side. Residents waved and chanted from their balconies and windows.

Nour's supporters crammed into the Bab al Shariya meeting room and overflowed into the streets. Ceiling fans droned on ineffectively and sweat streamed down the candidate's brow as he tried in vain to quiet the raucous crowd.

Nour promised, if elected, to rule for a two-year transitional period, during which he would draft a new constitution, enact real political reforms that guarantee freedom of expression, do away with restrictions on political parties and abolish the emergency law.

Just as Nour started speaking, quietly listing off damning economic statistics, his chief opponent was wrapping up a two hour long, 4,000 word speech delivered to party faithful. Standing beneath an outdoor air conditioning unit, with massive fans cooling the crowd, Mubarak vowed to "work hard to earn the trust and support of each and every Egyptian" and said he believed "these elections will be fair, free and transparent."

Mubarak made sweeping promises to the Egyptian people. In addition to continued political reform, he promised four million new job opportunities over the next six years, health insurance for every citizen, 3,500 new schools, 80,000 government subsidized homes, the doubling of wages of low-income civil servants and child care for working mothers.

The Mubarak campaign is working to convince Egyptians to support their candidate, and, perhaps more importantly, to convince the world that these elections will indeed be free and fair. While few think Mubarak is likely to lose, the latter task is destined to prove more difficult. But the campaign is in the hands of the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) slickest and most media-savvy young faces, and they are intent on putting on a convincing show.

Claiming to have the president's full support, they have denounced the police violence that has twice this summer turned opposition demonstrations into ugly displays of the state's most undemocratic and intolerant face. And they are courting the local and international media with a professional public relations team providing uncharacteristic access to journalists.

The campaign, however, is being peppered with criticism. The demands of Egyptian judges have been ignored, and they remain a powerful voice of discontent. Civil society organizations are up in arms after the Election Commission refused to allow them to supervise voting. Opposition candidates are complaining that the Mubarak campaign is exceeding spending limits, and relying on government funds.

All the same, three days into the campaign, it is clear that something unprecedented is underway in Egypt, even if it's only the trappings of free elections, as many allege. Egyptian state television is giving equal time to each of the ten candidates on their nightly newscasts. Even state newspapers like Al Ahram are giving some coverage to Nour and other opposition candidates.

On the Campaign Trail

As the Ghad Party's campaign bus, emblazoned with a 30 foot Ayman Nour banner, rumbles through military checkpoints en route to Ismailia for a campaign rally, soldiers look on bemused, extend a thumbs-up sign and wave the bus through.

Unlike any other opposition rally in recent years, as the bus pulls into Ismailia the only police in sight are those police escorting the campaign bus through traffic and into town. When a handful of NDP supporters try to break up the rally, police shoo them away.

Perhaps 500 supporters gather to hear Nour rip into Mubarak, accusing him of neglecting the poor and failing to follow through on past reform promises. He speaks with a populist fire, and hones in on a story of the peasant's son who graduated at the top of his class, but killed himself after the Foreign Ministry rejected his application because he was from an unsuitable social class.

"What does it mean to be a peasant? It means a man who didn't rob a bank," Nour roars into the microphones. "If he had robbed a bank he would have become a businessman or a member of parliament. If he knew that he had a chance to work and find a better life he would not have killed himself.

After the speech, Nour's 30-car motorcade rolls slowly through the streets of Ismailiya, honking horns wildly and waving orange banners. Even the policemen escorting the caravan hold up a small Nour picture as they pass Nour's black Mercedes. "My god be with you," one says.

Nour toured a dusty market, paved with donkey manure, to the dismay of fruit and vegetable vendors.

"No one ever talks with ordinary people," says 19 year-old Maram Mazen, a Ghad campaign volunteer. "It's very precious for them that a presidential candidate comes and talks to them. Mubarak never does that. This is very new."

Later that night in Port Said, Nour's revelers led a three-hour march through the heart of the Suez Canal town, known for its dislike of Mubarak. All along the route shopkeepers, pedestrians and residents came out to watch the procession. Almost all those interviewed denounced Mubarak, largely because of the government's 2002 decision to revoke Port Said's status as a duty free zone.

"Everything here is closed now," says Mohamed Antar, an unemployed 39 year-old. "No one buys. No one sells. They closed the free trade area, destroyed the city. Mubarak has punished this city."

Nomaan Gommaa, the Wafd Party candidate who failed to show up for his first campaign press conference last Wednesday, will visit Port Said Sunday. Mubarak meanwhile will be making his first campaign stop with a visit to the Tenth of Ramadan on Sunday to tout his plans to battle unemployment.

Religion and politics

Both Nour and Gommaa have appealed to the Muslim Brotherhood for support in the elections. In the past week, rumors have swirled that the Brotherhood would support Mubarak. However, the Islamic organization's leader, Mahdi Akef, said yesterday that the rumors were baseless.

"All members agreed that during the past 24 years of Mubarak's regime the country's political life was stagnant and people were oppressed," Akef told Cairo.

First deputy of the banned-but-tolerated group Muhammad Habib, however, said that the group have not decided yet if they will boycott the elections or not. "If we choose to take part in the elections it is because we believe that people's participation is very important and that the passiveness of people led to the political oppression we see now," Habib said. "The group thinks that it is their mission to encourage people to participate in the political life of the country and choose who rules and represents them," he added.

Abdel Moneim Said, member of the NDP's Higher Policies Committee and political scientist who heads Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said he does not believe that the Muslim Brotherhood's participation could make a difference in the election results. "The Muslim Brotherhood try to show themselves as the largest group but the reality is that they are not as popular as they try to make people think," he asserted.

Mubarak has picked up other key endorsements, however. The Coptic Pope has announced his support for Mubarak, as have popular political singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim and comedian Adel Imam.