Political Parties in Egypt

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.