by Marwa Othman

Introduction

Since the events of January 2011, which led to the ouster of President Mubarak, Egypt continues to undergo a political transition. One of the main demands and aspirations, which the Egyptian people hoped to achieve after the events of January 2011, was “social justice”. The definition of social justice is: "governments are compelled to represent and serve their populations and act in their best interest. A faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women."[1]

Egypt has seen remarkable transformation in recent years where changes are occurring more rapidly than any time in recent history. One of these changes is the Egyptian people having a voice in the elections process. UNDP played a major role in the change, by collaborating with the Egyptian government, in raising awareness to the Egyptians on the importance of their votes when electing their future leaders and at the same time highlighting the importance of establishing an independent, permanent body to overlook all electoral aspects taking place in the country. Gender inequalities faced in the elections process are prevalent on a global scale, more so in Egypt. Women's participation in bringing about change in the elections process was strong and impactful. However, this influence was not reflected in the number of elected officials. The reason for this disparity is not clear-cut, but it is multifactorial. The Egyptian culture has not been accustomed to women giving their voice in making decisions where the stakes include electing government officials. Furthermore, many women fail to see the value of their voice due to unfamiliarity with the voting process, which is more commonplace among rural dwellers, where illiteracy rates are high and poverty is rampant.  

The political participation of women is clearly defined in the 2011 General Assembly resolution on Women’s Political Participation (A/RES/66/130).[2] To date, women continue to be under-represented around the world in positions at decision-making levels, and more efforts need to be exerted to reach the target of 30% critical mass, as proposed at the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Representation of Egyptian women in public service positions has always stood at very low figures. Of the 688 members elected to both chambers of the 2011/2012 Parliament, only 16 were represented. Only four women ministers were included in the first Cabinet appointed after January 2011, and later reduced to two. Currently, the Cabinet includes four women, two of which are continuing their posts from the last government. Women are also under-represented in the judicial authority, forming only 10%. In the last two Constitutional Drafting Committees appointed, women did not occupy more than a handful of seats ranging from 5-10%. Again, the current Egyptian Cabinet includes only four women ministers out of 34, indicating further need for effective political participation by women. This paper will focus on how some interventions played a role to address these weaknesses.

Interventions

Strengthening social justice through empowering women’s political participation has been implemented through two key successful components.

(a)    Women’s representation in the electoral legal framework

Many developmental interventions have taken place in the past three years to strengthen institutional capacities and national electoral practices in the long run. UNDP engaged in fruitful efforts to assist the authorities with the electoral legal framework through exposure to comparative international experiences and knowledge sharing. A range of activities also focused on including special measures to ensure women’s representation in elected bodies. The House of Representatives law,[3] which would elect a new legislature, was ratified by former interim President Adly Mansour on 5 June 2014. The new parliamentary body will be composed of 567 seats total (59 larger than the previous body), with the majority of seats- 420 (75%) elected under the majoritarian system and 120 (20%) under the closed absolute list system. The President will appoint the remaining 5% (27 seats). Initially, the draft law had ensured only a 4% women’s representation. However, the draft was amended after the National Council for Women (NCW) and several women groups applied political pressure and pushed for a higher representation. The “block vote” system established special measures as the means of representation for marginalized and disenfranchised groups. Women, Christians, workers and farmers, youth, disabled and expatriates living abroad were all assigned quotas in the 120 seats system (distributed across four districts). In the two 15-seat districts, each list must include seven women. In the two 45-seat districts, each list must include 21 women.[4] Additionally, half of the seats appointed by the President must be women.[5] Therefore, the new law would ensure that women gain 56 elected seats plus 14 appointed seats, thus yielding 70 seats or a 12.3% quota. 

Although this quota is still not considered appropriate representation, it is seen as a positive intervention for one of Egypt’s most marginalized groups, particularly when compared to the previous parliament where women held less than 2% of seats. Nearly 70% of women candidates were placed at the bottom half of the lists, even among the most liberal parties, in the 2011/2012 parliamentary elections. Without a quota, it was left to the political parties to decide on the number and position of women on the lists, which did not guarantee adequate representation.

 (b)   Awareness-raising initiatives

Since 2011, UNDP collaborated with UN Women and the Ministry of State for Administrative Development and the Social Fund for Development, on the implementation of the “Women’s Citizenship Initiative”[6] to issue national ID cards for rural women to enable them to vote, access public services and to benefit from full citizenship rights. So far, over 115,000 cards have been successfully issued. 

In early 2013, the NCW launched two training programs for women voters and candidates. The program named “Choose your Candidate” [7] aims to train women on how to make an informed decision when choosing a candidate. The “How to Manage an Election Campaign” program[8] is designed to train women who wish to run as candidates for the parliamentary and local elections on campaign management skills. Other training courses offered by BRIDGE or the (Building Resources in Democracy and Electoral Assistance) were useful to expose national electoral stakeholders, judicial members, opinion leaders, academics and journalists to modules related to gender and elections. Among other activities, UNDP and UN Women hosted a sub-regional conference on women’s participation in post-revolutionary parliamentary elections, focusing on comparative experiences from Egypt and other Arab countries. Such initiatives have managed to set a platform for gender experts and electoral administrators to share experiences and define good practices.

Proposals for Sustainability

(a) Electoral Management Body

Ad hoc electoral committees in Egypt have managed the process of electoral administration, since the early 2000s.[9] The 2012 constitution was the first to introduce the principles of an electoral management body (EMB), which was considered a milestone in the system. The 2014 constitution continues to foresee this permanent, independent body to oversee the electoral process.[10] According to international standards and norms, the EMB should be founded on five principles: independence, impartiality, integrity, professionalism and transparency. However, the concept of the EMB is yet to be spelled out in a law, to be ratified by the upcoming House of Representatives, before its establishment. The EMB can serve as a sustainable tool to ensure that elections are conducted in a transparent, neutral manner and will encourage women to participate in the electoral process as both voters and candidates; a long-term goal that will lead to social equality in the form of political empowerment. The EMB, referred to in the constitution as the National Electoral Authority (NEA), will be administered by a Board composed of senior judges with a permanent executive secretariat.[11] The NEA could be responsible for all aspects of the electoral administration ranging from voter registration, public outreach, nomination of candidates, electoral campaigns, voting and counting and the resolution of all complaints and appeals on all procedures in the process. These responsibilities should always be gender sensitive in order to further incorporate women in the political environment of Egypt, as candidates and voters. It is highly recommended that these gender-mainstreaming policies extend to integrating women within its permanent staff.

(b) Increased training and capacity building

More work needs to be done to guarantee a higher representation of women. It is essential to build on the momentum of the citizenship initiative by expanding the program to reach more women across the country, particularly the rural areas. Also, the training of women candidates from political parties is not sufficient. Sustainability requires encouraging more women voters to become women candidates. This can be achieved through raising awareness and providing training to reach more women across the governorates, in order to create generations of women who understand how to choose their candidates and may potentially look into the possibility of running for public office. In addition, training electoral stakeholders, such as electoral commissioners, polling staff and security personnel would be vital to enhance the electoral process. 

It is also recommended to invest in the training of new staff once the NEA is established, with an emphasis on gender mainstreaming, in order to build capacities within the institution. In the long run this would contribute to awareness raising, increased political empowerment of women and hence deepen social justice in Egypt.

Challenges

The main shortcoming of the new electoral law is the chosen distribution of parliamentary seats, particularly after several Egyptian political parties have campaigned for a proportional representation system that would favor party representation. In contrast to the two-thirds proportional representation system of the 2011 law, the party list that wins an absolute majority in each electoral constituency will gain all seats; essentially a block vote or a variation of the majoritarian system. Many parties have criticized this electoral system of a “winner takes all”, which will limit the role of political parties, stifle their development and compromise political inclusiveness. Some experts criticize the gender quotas for putting an emphasis on quantity rather than quality, which in turn weakens the role of women members of parliament. Despite its potential drawbacks, it may be useful in Egypt’s transitional phase, in order to overcome predominant gender biases, and in the long run, can secure an improvement in women representation and reinforce social justice.

An immediate challenge for the formation of the EMB would be the transfer of authority from the national electoral stakeholders and the challenge of its sustainability, as experienced in other emerging democracies. Another obstacle of an EMB is its high financial cost. Financial management of an EMB could incur a high cost and training new staff may pose a financial burden for the current state of the economy.

Conclusion

Despite these modest advances, progress nevertheless remains slow in increasing women’s political participation in Egypt. The guarantee of a larger women’s representation in the new electoral law and the introduction of a permanent EMB are both developmental interventions that can contribute to substantial, foreseeable social justice in Egypt. Elections bridge the gap of social justice by not only giving the people the power to choose their leaders, but more specifically, be inclusive of women's voice in the elections process. In March 2014, the first woman was elected to head “Al-Dustour” political party. This is an empowering step for women, and it’s imperative to build on this momentum, considering longstanding patriarchal tendencies that are deeply rooted in Egyptian culture that have marginalized many women from political life. The previous electoral experiences (parliamentary, presidential and referendum) have played a major role in women realizing their importance as a voting power. In the future, it is likely that women will play a larger role in the elections with further political participation as both voters and candidates. In order to achieve a credible elections process in a young democracy like Egypt, it is key to push forth more of these sustainable interventions, to pave the way in achieving one of the fundamental demands of the revolution: social justice. 

* Marwa Othman was the National Electoral Officer for UNDP’s electoral assistance project  “Strengthening of the Democratic Process in Egypt” from 2011-2014. In this capacity, she acted as a reporting officer, and supported the development of procedures and training manuals for the High Electoral Commission for parliamentary and presidential elections and referenda in Egypt’s post-revolution/transitional period. She is an accredited BRIDGE facilitator and has conducted several workshops on gender and elections. Mrs. Othman has four years of experience as a research assistant at the Security Council Affairs Division, in the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) at UN Headquarters in New York and has also worked in the Electoral Assistance Division in DPA. Originally from Egypt, Mrs. Othman obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Tufts University and holds an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.