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Parties - Movements
Algeria's 10 May 2012 Elections: Preliminary Analysis
![[A voting station for the Algerian elections in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Image by Vikoula5/Wikimedia Commons]](/content_images/3/sm_800px-13_-_Elections_legislatives_algeriennes_de_2012.JPG "[A voting station for the Algerian elections in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Image by Vikoula5/Wikimedia Commons]")
The results of the 10 May 2012 Algerian legislative elections ran against conventional wisdom, and at least two points will certainly provoke much commentary. First, despite widespread disgruntlement, Algerian voter turnout proved to be significantly higher than predicted by most observers. 42.91 percent of registered Algerians participated – seven percent more than in 2007. Second, and possibly with region-wide ramifications, Algerian voters bucked a major trend of the so-called "Arab Spring": Islamist victory at the urns. Islamists won neither a majority nor did they come close to winning a plurality of seats in the new parliament. In fact, the five-party ...
Keep Reading »Arab Uprisings and the Algerian Elections: Ghosts from the Past?
![[A rally in the centre of Algiers that was eventually stopped by police. A few hundred people joined the rally holding placards calling for changes to the old regime. February 26, 2011. Image by Boumedienne Merouane/Demotix.]](/content_images/3/sm_605175.jpg "[A rally in the centre of Algiers that was eventually stopped by police. A few hundred people joined the rally holding placards calling for changes to the old regime. February 26, 2011. Image by Boumedienne Merouane/Demotix.]")
In December 2010 and January 2011, Algerians and Tunisians took to the streets. While in Tunisia hundreds of thousands of citizens stood up to bully dictator Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali, to the West, cities across Algeria erupted into widespread rioting. Though the 29 December to 10 January riots were of an intensity not seen since the October 1988 uprising that put an end to the former single-party system of the National Liberation Front (FLN), they dissipated as suddenly as they began, with no bloodshed. Meanwhile, Tunisian mass demonstrations ultimately forced Ben Ali to flee, both marking the Tunisian Revolution of January 14th and debuting the Arab ...
Keep Reading »Reform and Development Party-Misruna
![[Reform and Development Party-Misruna logo. Image from rdpegypt.org]](/content_images/3/sm_rdpm.jpg "[Reform and Development Party-Misruna logo. Image from rdpegypt.org]")
Reform and Development Party-Misruna The Reform and Development Party (RDP) was established in 2009 by Mohamed Anwar Esmat Al-Sadat (commonly known as Esmat Al-Sadat), a nephew of late Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat. Egyptian authorities turned down RDP’s initial license application in July 2010, but the party was eventually legalized in May 2011 in the wake of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution. In June of this year, the RDP merged with Misruna [Our Egypt], a party founded by business tycoon Ramy Lakah who was pushed out of the liberal Al-Wafd Party in April 2011. The nascent party therefore now refers to itself as “the Reform and Development-Misruna Party” (RDP-M). The ...
Keep Reading »Egyptian Tahrir Party
![[Egyptian Tahrir Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_hizbtahrirmasri.jpg "[Egyptian Tahrir Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]")
Egyptian Tahrir Party The Egyptian Tahrir Party received its official license on 5 September 2011, though party founders claim that they were talking about forming a party before the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Sufi leader Mohammad Alaa Al-Din Abul Azayem called on followers to join the party, purportedly in order to counterbalance the influence of rival Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and Salafist movements. Although the party is often described as a “Sufi” party and various Sufi movements publicly support it, the group’s spokespeople are all non-Sufis. Party leader Ibrahim Zahran describes Egyptian Tahrir as a ...
Keep Reading »Nationwide Vote for Party-Coalition Lists (Stage 1)
![[Image from unknown archive]](/content_images/3/sm_electionsboxes.jpg "[Image from unknown archive]")
Party/Coalition List Votes % Votes Freedom and Justice* 3565092 36.62321885 Al-Nour** 2371713 24.3639615 Egyptian Bloc 1299819 13.35268647 Al-Wafd 690077 7.088973018 Al-Wasat 415590 4.269242848 Revolution Continues 335947
Freedom and Justice Party
![[Freedom and Justice Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_FreedomandJustice.jpg "[Freedom and Justice Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]")
Freedom and Justice Party The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood, could not have come into being without the 25 January revolution. Up to that time, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Egypt’s most powerful Islamist organization, was not only denied the right to form parties, but also barred – at least legally – from political life. As a result, the group had to pay a heavy price in detentions and repression to practice politics under the rule of former President Hosni Mubarak. The group had been trying to get a foothold in the country’s political arena for decades but was met with entrenched opposition by the Mubarak regime, which ...
Keep Reading »Revolution Continues Alliance
![[Revolution Continues Alliance logo. Image from elbadil.net]](/content_images/3/sm_thawramostamera.jpg "[Revolution Continues Alliance logo. Image from elbadil.net]")
Revolution Continues Alliance [Note: The Revolution Continues Alliance has announced on 20 November 2011 that it suspended its election campaigns in protest of the recent clampdown against protesters in Tahrir Square.] Coalition Members: The Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Egyptian Socialist Party, the Egyptian Current Party, the Egypt Freedom Party, Equality and Development Party, the Revolution’s Youth Coalition, the Egyptian Alliance Party. The Revolution Continues (RCA) is an electoral coalition that, according to its members, comprises an ideologically diverse set of actors, namely liberal, Islamists and socialists, including the youth of the Muslim ...
Keep Reading »Islamist Bloc (Alliance for Egypt)
![[Poster of Islamist Bloc (Alliance for Egypt). Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_islamicbloc222.jpg "[Poster of Islamist Bloc (Alliance for Egypt). Image from unknown archive.]")
Islamist Bloc (Alliance for Egypt) Coalition Members: Al-Nour Party, Al-Asala Party, Building and Development Party The Islamist Bloc is an electoral coalition formed by three Islamist political parties with the aim to integrate their efforts in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The Islamist Bloc is comprised of the Salafist Al-Nour and Al-Asala Parties, as well as the Building and Development Party, the latter of which was founded by the Islamic Group (Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya). Some observers have dubbed this coalition the “Islamist Alliance.” The three parties comprising the alliance announced on 3 November 2011 that they would compete in the parliamentary ...
Keep Reading »Egyptian Social Democratic Party
![[Egyptian Social Democratic Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_EgyptianSocialDemocraticPartyu.jpg "[Egyptian Social Democratic Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]")
Egyptian Social Democratic Party The Egyptian Social Democratic Party was founded in the wake of Egypt's January 25 Revolution. Officially launched in March 2011, the party combines several groups sharing a liberal and social democratic outlook that were politically active in the years preceding the revolution. These groups include individuals who, prior to the revolution, were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to form a center-left party known as the Social Democratic Party. Two prominent members, Farid Zahran and Ziad Al-Elaimy, participated in Mohamed Abul-Ghar's March 9 Movement for the Independence of Universities. The two other groups are members of Mohamed ...
Keep Reading »National Progressive Unionist (Tagammu) Party
![[Tagammu Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]](/content_images/3/sm_tagamu123.jpg "[Tagammu Party logo. Image from unknown archive.]")
National Progressive Unionist (Tagammu) Party Together with the Nasserist and Al-Wafd Parties, the National Progressive Unionist Party (NPUP) (commonly known as Al-Tagammu) was considered one of the main three opposition parties in the pre-revolution era. It initially emerged in 1975 as a socialist platform in the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), Egypt’s only party at that time. Following President Anwar Sadat’s decision to transform Egypt’s one party system into a limited multi-party one, Al-Tagammu withdrew from the ASU to form its own party in April 1976. At the time Sadat had envisioned organizing politics via three platforms that existed inside the ASU: rightwing (the ...
Keep Reading »Post-Ben Ali Partisan Developments in Tunisia: The Guarantor of Pluralism in a Nascent Democracy
It was early afternoon at the Congress for the Republic (CPR) headquarters in downtown Tunis, known amongst its members as Hezb el Koujina — literally, the Kitchen Party. Mr. Mohammed Abbou, standing in the CPR headquarter's actual koujina (kitchen) was hurriedly eating a sandwich before scuffling off to a meeting with the rest of the party's political bureau. Abbou, currently Tunisia’s Minister of Administrative Reform, was trying his best to swallow bites of his sandwich, while leaving sufficient ...
Keep Reading »Time for a 'Bourguibist' Comeback? Essebsi Butters up Tunisians in Monastir
The dome shaped room was a sea of red and white. It smelled of amber musk and sea. The attendees were mostly well over the age of forty, and the buzz of excitement was impossible to miss. You would think you were attending a Michael Jackson concert. What’s the occasion, you ask? Well, to celebrate and adulate the ultimate star of the show, Beji Caid Essebsi – or, as the attendees would proudly tell you, to “unite all political forces as Tunisian above all else,” and to “start a new era in Tunisia’s ...
Keep Reading »Al-Adl Party
Al-Adl Party Al-Adl Party was formally established in the wake of former President Mubarak’s ouster. The party declares that it seeks to protect the goals of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution and promote the country’s social and economic development. Al-Adl professes a liberal platform calling for a civil, free, and modern state though the party decided from the outset to not align itself with Egypt’s liberal or Islamist camps, calling instead for a “third way”. Before the Revolution Its main founding ...
Keep Reading »Egyptian Bloc
Egyptian Bloc Coalition Members: Free Egyptians Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and Al-Tagammu Party. The Egyptian Bloc consists of the Free Egyptians Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and Al-Tagammu Party. The Bloc is often portrayed as a “secular-leaning” alliance that seeks to counterbalance the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the upcoming elections, specifically the Brotherhood led Democratic Alliance’s electoral coalition. Members of the Bloc announced in early ...
Keep Reading »Ghad Al-Thawra Party (Hizb Ghad Al-Thawra)
Ghad Al-Thawra Party (Hizb Ghad Al-Thawra) The liberal Ghad Al-Thawra (‘The Revolution’s Tomorrow’) Party is most commonly associated with its founder, Ayman Nour, who famously ran against then incumbent President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election. The party was originally licensed in 2004 under the name Al-Ghad Party, but it was sidelined from the political scene during Mubarak’s last years in office due to internal splits and legal battles. It reemerged again as a licensed political ...
Keep Reading »Meet the National Democratic Party Offshoots
The National Democratic Party (NDP) of ousted President Hosni Mubarak was dissolved on 16 April 2011 by the Supreme Administrative Court’s order. Since then, former NDP officials have established what are generally considered as offshoots of the disbanded party. Six such parties have been formed so far and at least four more are being planned. While there were court cases challenging the candidacy of individuals formerly affiliated with the NDP in the upcoming elections, a court decision announced on 15 ...
Keep Reading »Socialist Popular Alliance Party
Socialist Popular Alliance Party [Note: The Revolution Continues Alliance, of which the Socialist Popular Alliance Party is a member, has announced on 20 November 2011 that it suspended its election campaigns in protest of the recent clampdown against protesters in Tahrir Square.] The Socialist Popular Alliance Party (SPA)—founded immediately following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak—was the first Egyptian leftist party to be legally recognized after the January 25 Revolution. On 28 ...
Keep Reading »Al-Nour Party
Al-Nour Party Established in the wake of the 25 January uprising, Al-Nour (“The Light”) Party is the largest of Egypt’s three licensed Salafist parties (the other two being Al-Asala and Al-Fadila Parties). It was established by Al-Da‘wa Al-Salafiyya (“The Salafist Call”), Egypt’s largest Salafist group, commonly known as Al-Daawa Movement. Al-Daawa started in Alexandria where it now enjoys a considerable following. Al-Nour Party was officially licensed in June 2011. Official registration is of ...
Keep Reading »Democratic Alliance for Egypt
Democratic Alliance for Egypt Coalition Members: Freedom and Justice Party, Al-Karama Party, Ghad Al-Thawra Party, Labor Party, Al-Islah wal-Nahda Party, Al-Hadara Party, Al-Islah Party, Al-Geel Party, Misr Al-Arabi Al-Ishtiraki Party, Al-Ahrar Party, Al-Horiyya wal-Tanmiya Party. In early June, a group of twenty-eight Egyptian political parties joined forces to form the “Democratic Alliance for Egypt” for the purpose of coordinating their electoral strategies for Egypt’s first legislative elections ...
Keep Reading »Egyptian Current Party
Egyptian Current Party [Note: The Revolution Continues Alliance, of which the Egyptian Current Party is a member, has announced on 20 November 2011 that it suspended its election campaigns in protest of the recent clampdown against protesters in Tahrir Square.] The Egyptian Current Party is one of many political parties founded in the wake of former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Many of its leading members formerly belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood’s youth wing and the April 6 youth movement, ...
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