The case for proportional representation: Lively debate over electoral system launches National Dialogue

At long last, 43 representatives of various parties, political forces and trade unions gathered on Sunday to devote six hours to a lively discussion of political rights and parliamentary representation.

The debate marked the first sessions of the National Dialogue, a forum ostensibly intended to facilitate greater plurality in the state’s approach to pressing social, political and economic exigencies and to enliven a stagnant political arena.

The National Dialogue has emerged slowly following a call from the president in 2022 and after months of preparatory work to select an agenda and curate a set of participants, with early setbacks including demands from opposition groups for the release of political prisoners as a guarantee of the forum’s seriousness in addressing the prevailing political climate. 

Representatives of several opposition parties whose members continue to be arrested and detained pending political cases were notably absent from Sunday’s session. 

Participating attendees, meanwhile, were at loggerheads in a debate over the electoral system. 

Parties close to the current government, and which hold large voting blocs in Parliament tended to defend the status quo, a system whereby parties or coalition blocs have the final say over a group of candidates they field for a particular constituency via a closed electoral list.

Voters cast their ballot for all the candidates on a list, and the list with an absolute majority wins all of the seats allotted to the constituency.

Opposition forces, meanwhile, were in favor of reforming the electoral system to proportional representation, whereby voters cast their ballot for particular candidates, and a constituency’s seats are allocated to the candidates who win the most votes. 

Fighting for the status quo 

“The proportional list may facilitate entry into Parliament, but it will never facilitate decision-making in Parliament.” 

Defending the closed list system that is currently in place, the head of the dialogue’s technical secretariat Mahmoud Fawzy defended its efficacy for “constitutional purposes.” The system was introduced for the 2020 parliamentary elections to guarantee a degree of political representation to women, young people, Coptic Christians and Egyptians living abroad during each parliamentary cycle, as per the 2019 constitutional amendments.

The proportional system, said Fawzy, produces heterogeneous electoral blocs which give smaller groups more representation than they’re really due. “The proportional list may facilitate entry into Parliament, but it will never facilitate decision-making in Parliament.” 

Voices coming out to defend the current system also included the current majority party in both parliamentary houses, Nation’s Future Party, as well as parties holding large numbers of seats including the Homeland Defenders Party and the Coordination of Party Youth and Politicians.

The Tagammu Party, Will of a Generation Party, Republican People’s Party, and Egyptian Freedom Party also spoke in favor of closed lists. 

Calling for change

Yet a majority of speakers came out in favor of the proportional system.

Fawzy’s comments garnered a swift response from representatives of the progressive coalition group, the Civil Democratic Movement, whose members accused him of trying to steer the discussion in a predetermined direction.

Absolving Fawzy, Mohamed Abdel Ghany, the rapporteur of the electoral system committee, asserted that Fawzy’s support for the closed list system represents Fawzy’s personal opinion rather than a position held by the dialogue’s board of trustees or technical secretariat. 

Dialogue coordinator Diaa Rashwan, meanwhile, expressed personal support for the proportional list system.

Nepotism can easily creep into political life via the absolute majority system, Amr Hashem Rabea the civil movement representative on the board of trustees, citing examples of current MPs who inherited their seats from their parents or friends. That the absolute majority can guarantee representation for marginalized groups, contended Rabea, is merely a post-fact justification by the government which seeks ultimately only to create an “obedient” parliament.

“We are entering into national dialogue because there is no political climate,” said activist Khaled Talima, also criticizing the existing electoral system and formation of parliament. “The parliament in its current and previous sessions performed poorly.”

“If there were not blatant interference by state agencies in changing the results before, during and after the elections, we wouldn't be sitting here right now,” added former MP and Egyptian Social Democratic Party member Basem Kamel. Advocating for the proportional list system, Kamel said there are “solutions” to ensure that constitutional requirements for representing certain groups are met. Rabea proposed an example of a hybrid proportional list/single-seat electoral system, in which the list would include 20 people, half of whom would be women and who would meet the categories of youth, Copts, Egyptians abroad, and so on.

Not a totally inclusive discussion

Missing from Sunday’s sessions were some party leaders from the Civil Democratic Movement, and representatives of a number of parties that had previously requested to speak on the electoral system. These included the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Karama Party and the Nasserist Party.

According to Haitham al-Hariry, a representative of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, several CDM parties including his own decided not to participate in the dialogue sessions unless members who remain imprisoned for their political views are first granted release.

Talima likewise started his statement on Sunday by expressing hope for the release of all prisoners of opinion, before he was cut off and asked to remain on topic.

At the conclusion of the second session held on Sunday, Rashwan declared that upcoming sessions of the dialogue’s political branch on May 21 will discuss the Senate election law, adding that the different proposals on the electoral system will be submitted to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for ratification once they are finalized.

*Writing by Ahmed Bakr