Egypt bloc threatens to boycott elections

Dozens of political parties threatened to shun Egypt's elections, accusing military leaders of plotting to guarantee political power to former regime loyalists. The Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best-organized political force, said on its Web site the 37-party Democratic Alliance for Egypt coalition would decide Sunday whether to withdraw from and boycott the Nov. 28 parliamentary elections. The party promised that without electoral reforms by Sunday, it would support renewed popular protests on the streets. McClatchy Newspapers said late Thursday the alliance already agreed to boycott the elections -- the first scheduled since President Hosni Mubarak's government collapsed seven months ago. United Press International was not able to independently verify the report. A boycott could compromise the legitimacy of the elections, which analysts had expected to be the first free and fair elections in modern Egyptian history. The coalition says it wants the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to alter election laws so votes for political parties -- not for individual candidates -- decide all the new Parliament's seats. The original election law, passed this summer, said half the delegates would be elected by party and the other half by individual candidacy. Many politicians said an individual-candidate vote would open the door to the same system of vote-buying and patronage that kept Mubarak's National Democratic Party in parliamentary dominance for more than 30 years, The Wall Street Journal reported. The NDP -- dissolved by court order April 16 -- wielded uncontested power and was usually considered the single, authoritarian party inside an officially multiparty system. The military council, which has ruled Egypt by decree since Mubarak resigned, officially banned members of Mubarak's party from involvement in politics for 10 years. More than 20 political parties and movements scheduled "Reclaiming the Revolution" protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday. "We are going to organize marches from mosques around Cairo to head to Tahrir Square following Friday prayers," April 6 Youth Movement spokesman Mahmoud Afify told Daily News Egypt. The groups will call for the military council to make good on its promise to end emergency laws in effect since the council took control. Protest organizers pointed out Friday was supposed to be the last day of a six-month state of emergency the council declared in March. The Freedom and Justice Party did not say Thursday whether it would participate in the protests