Political Parties In Egypt
By its constitution, Egypt has a multi-party system, however in practice the National Democratic Party was the long-time ruling party and dominated the Egyptian political arena up until the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 which ousted NDP President Hosni Mubarak. Under Mubarak, opposition parties were allowed, but were widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. As of February 11, 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has governed Egypt.
On March 28, 2011, the Council introduced the Political Party Law which eases restrictions on the legal establishment of new political parties in Egypt. The legislation has still however been criticized as discriminatory. Under the law new parties are now required to have at least 5000 members from at least ten of Egypt's provinces. Originally new parties were only required to have 1000 members. This was cited as a barrier for new parties before parliamentary elections which took place at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. And new party leaders are required to raise at least LE1 million to publish the names of the founding members in two widely-circulated dailies, seen as favoring wealthier interests. Also no parties are able to form on the basis of religion or class, ruling out the formation of Islamic and labor parties.
Read more about Political Parties In Egypt: Political Parties and Groups
Famous quotes containing the words political, parties and/or egypt:
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“A foreign minister, I will maintain it, can never be a good man of business if he is not an agreeable man of pleasure too. Half his business is done by the help of his pleasures: his views are carried on, and perhaps best, and most unsuspectedly, at balls, suppers, assemblies, and parties of pleasure; by intrigues with women, and connections insensibly formed with men, at those unguarded hours of amusement.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“There is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)